Clarification!

There's Altogether Too Many Newfangled Words, Consarn It!

What is a meme? That question popped up several times lately, so I thought I'd pass on some information.

Coined in 1976 by Richard Dawkins in a book called 'The Selfish Gene', a meme is "a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation".

Other definitions have come about, and you can read all about it here, but I choose to think of a meme as a bit of random viral RNA injected into people's consciousness, carrying an idea or thought pattern to be further replicated.

If you like, think about it as a book that's passed from person to person, each of whom adds their own comments in the margins, or illustrations on the endpapers. All those contributions might eventually alter the perception or the transmission of the message, but the underlying structure remains intact.

UPDATE: I ran across a Top 10 list of internet-related memes gathered by Chris Anderson of The Long Tail. How many of these do you recognize?

Ellen Feiss
The Star Wars Kid
Dancing baby
Bert is Evil
Bonzai Kitten
Tourist Guy
MC Hawking
Leet speak
Subservient Chicken
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