How do internet memes spread?
An internet meme is an idea, behavior or practice that spreads from person to person within a culture and strictly through the internet. Memes are particularly important in our modern society because of the ease of creating and spreading memes through the internet. They can push a political message, create humor, show emotion, etc. In my opinion, the world of memes is a physical representation of our culture –just as other forms of outlets such as television, books and music say something about us. And, similarly to those other forms of media, the diffusion of memes can be looked at through our class’s lens of social contagion.
As we’ve discussed in class, certain behaviors, such as buying a product, spread through social networks –for example: me buying a Toyota Prius because I drove my friend’s and really liked it. We’ve seen how certain products can exist in clusters and invisible social barriers can prevent the diffusion of behaviors to distant network clusters. The same network concepts can be applied to memes. For example, let’s look at a very widespread meme, grumpy cat:
A grumpy cat meme is almost always of this type: a caption on the top and bottom with Grumpy Cat’s unimpressed face is in the middle. There are two different networks diffusions to look at: the diffusion of this specific meme among people who enjoy memes and, the diffusion of this type of meme (use of grumpy cat) among people who make memes. What is most interesting about the diffusion of the meme itself and the meme type is that they push each other to allow a meme to go viral. From a meme consumer’s perspective, I need a meme that is relatable and funny for me to share it. In other words, your favorite grumpy cat meme is probably not your first. One needs to see grumpy cat several times to understand its use and the humor of it. Therefore, as I consume more and more grumpy cat memes, I will enjoy them more as they are more relatable. From a meme producer’s perspective, they need to create a meme that people will enjoy and share for it to become viral. As a result, as more people understand the use of grumpy cat in memes, a meme producer would be more incentivized to use a grumpy cat meme because it speaks to a larger audience than, say, lesser known meme Pepe the Sad Frog:
.~Le me trying to do this work~
What a wonderful world of memes we have.
https://www.thoughtco.com/science-of-memes-4147457