More and more often now, I hear the word meme working its way into casual conversation. I saw this meme on Facebook, a relative tells me. Let me show you this meme on my phone, says a co-worker. Our friend group needs better memes, bemoans a friend. On more than one occasion, I have been shown memes that havent quite been memes. Now, Im not a prescriptivist (that is, I dont elevate one ideal use of language over other uses). I am fascinated with weird and wild ways language and culture evolve, and Im not foolish enough to presume that evolution can be successful policed. When strange, alien noises like meme start entering the everyday lexicon, however, I think theres little harm in trying to figure out where they came from, and why. With the word meme in particular, its a rather interesting history.

The word meme was first coined by scientist Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book, The Selfish Gene. The word was originally modeled after gene, drawing on the Greek mimeme, or that which is imitated. The word described practices, traditions and ideas that spread through culture, much like genes are capable of replicating and spreading. Dawkins aimed to explain how evolutionary principles, looked at through the lens of memes, could be applied to cultural development, an idea that would go to be developed into the field of memetics. Memetics as a field of studies has been met with contention; some feel the ambiguity of what qualifies as a meme and the chaotic nature of their spread makes studying them pseudoscientific.

Of course, in day-to-day parlance, meme doesnt seem to refer to anything so broad or theoretical. I almost exclusively hear the word in the context of internet memes. The internet is by its very nature a means for sharing ideas, which lends itself to the replication and repetition of ideas. Going viral is common online terminology, and anything that has gone viral that is, spread like a disease is by definition a meme.

I imagine its hard to use or interact with the internet at large and not encounter some form of meme, though also incredibly easy to be blissfully unaware that you have. New memes spawn on a daily basis and can be specific to any of a thousand online subcultures. I initially mentioned the dilution of the words meaning. Ive seen the word used to describe any weird or funny online image. Its understandable why such images would be called memes, as memes are often weird and funny images. However, such usage strips the word of some intrigue and nuance the replication, repetition and modification of a pre-existing idea or form.

Memes are not always funny images. In fact, given the repetition en masse, most memes quickly become unfunny. Ive occasionally seen complaints that present day internet meme culture develops too quickly. A new meme can suddenly become overplayed in the course of a single day, if not hours. In part, this comes about because memes themselves have developed their own online culture. An expectation exists that any funny or mildly unclever thing will become a meme, which leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy and a short meme lifespan.

If memes so quickly become unfunny, one might ask, Why all this hubbub about memes and internet and subculture? It wouldnt be too difficult to hammer out a think piece about internet memes as an apocalyptic harbinger of a conformist youth culture. But memes arent some wholly new concept. The Kilroy was here graffiti is a meme dating back to before World War II. Knock-knock and numerous other well-known jokes are memes. Urban legends, aphorisms and fairy tales are all concepts that spread memetically. Rather than just a current fad, meme is a relatively new word for something ancient. The language and words we use to communicate are constantly developing, and memes are just another form of language or perhaps language is a form of meme.

Evan Orbeck is a Messenger staff writer.

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The Meme-ing of Life - Aitkin Independent Age