They’re emphatic and designed to help convey an emotional state in a manner that’s simple to understand. Memes used to be the domain of 20-somethings. Here's a look at some popular meme categories and examples to give you a better idea of the breadth and scope of these viral statements. Most common internet memes are image macros – photos with a bold caption written in Impact font. Memes are a worldwide social phenomenon. As in the above meme, the COVID-19 pandemic and its ensuing social isolation period generated thousands of memes, capitalizing on the dark humor of a shared experience. Awareness of memes fostered their spread. Some a meme sticks around a while because it represents something timeless that continually rings true for people, such as parenthood. n. A unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another. Know Your Meme is a website dedicated to documenting Internet phenomena: viral videos, image macros, catchphrases, web celebs and more. Some researchers have traced the idea of a meme back hundreds of years, but its modern interpretation is considered by most to have been coined by British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. From tricks, memes, riddles, and stories, here's a great way to get to know Google's personal assistant better, and have some fun in the process. Early in the 1920s, the biologist Richard Semonused the term “mnemes” in theorising biologically inheritable memory. Nobody can claim to know or understand every single meme that exists. Often the origins of such memes can be buried in context so deep that understanding their origins requires dedicated research. You could even make some of your own if you feel so inclined. Genes, Dawkins argued, are subject to the forces of evolution: variation, mutation, competition and inheritance. A meme is a concept or behavior that spreads from person to person. The more a meme is spread, the greater the cultural influence it has. The meme as a unit provides a convenient means of discussing "… These memes put forth an opinion, argue with others, take a provocative stance, or use darker subjects, such as the above meme that takes advantage of an unfortunate headline. Memes as Satire. Chuck Norris has been a martial artist, actor, film director, and more in his life. In his book, he likened a meme's spread to that of a virus. Memes! Others might be bizarrely obscure, referencing a particular episode of a TV show or movie that aired decades ago. A Meme Spreads Quickly. Upgrade your lifestyleDigital Trends helps readers keep tabs on the fast-paced world of tech with all the latest news, fun product reviews, insightful editorials, and one-of-a-kind sneak peeks.Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Memes have also moved away from political or cultural topics to focus more on pop-culture references and sarcastic life observations, making them relatable, funny, and easier for them to spread like wildfire across the web. Sometimes memes exist for shock value or to teach a life lesson. Meme itself quickly became an Internet buzzword. John S. Wilkins retained the notion of meme as a kernel of cultural imitation while emphasizing the meme's evolutionary aspect, defining the meme as "the least unit of sociocultural information relative to a selection process that has favorable or unfavorable selection bias that exceeds its endogenous tendency to change." The assault on the Capitol, and on democracy, also felt like a meme-making social media performance. The best memes of 2020 so far promise a hilarious and demented year online. The easiest ones are known as “image macro” memes, which usually involve some sort of expressive image and some block text. This little dude originally … Even if memes seem impossible to understand, chances are you’ve come across at least one over the years that’s made sense to you. Other times a single photo or short video will generate hundreds of hilarious interpretations. Not because they’re digital visual communication (though of course, they are that), but because they are the product of a hive mind. You found out about it through word of mouth, you understood it, you changed its context, and you appropriated it for your own usage. 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