{"id":1079,"date":"2009-04-27T15:00:50","date_gmt":"2009-04-27T20:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/?p=1079"},"modified":"2009-04-27T15:00:50","modified_gmt":"2009-04-27T20:00:50","slug":"whats-a-meme-anyway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/2009\/04\/27\/whats-a-meme-anyway\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s a meme anyway?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m ready to risk some potential embarrassment and admit my ignorance outright: I don’t understand the word “meme<\/a>” — at all. I have seen the word used quite frequently (including by some TC contributors) and have read several definitions. But I just don’t get it. My hope is that some of our more erudite readers and contributors can explain it to me.<\/p>\n

Here’s what I’ve been able to pick up so far:<\/strong>
\n-It is a widely repeated or imitated cultural idea, image, or practice.
\n-It supposedly acts in a manner similar to a gene, in the sense that through vast repetitions, more environmentally “fit” versions of the meme gain greater sticking power.
\n-With reference to the Internet, it often just means “fad.”<\/p>\n

Some questions I have:<\/strong>
\n-Aren’t we just talking about the social reproduction of culture here — something that happens in everyday socialization?
\n-What is the unit of a “meme?” How does one delineate the parameters of a “meme” within a sea of culture?
\n-What on earth would make us think that culture is evolutionary, rather than just constantly changing without particular order?
\n-Isn’t the word “meme” just an attempt to make discussions of culture sound more sciencey?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m ready to risk some potential embarrassment and admit my ignorance outright: I don’t understand the word “meme” — at all. I have seen the word used quite frequently (including by some TC contributors) and have read several definitions. But I just don’t get it. My hope is that some of our more erudite readers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1401,1400],"class_list":["post-1079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-confusion","tag-meme"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1079"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1081,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079\/revisions\/1081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}