He argued that the role of the key replicator in cultural evolution does not belong to genes, but to memes that reproduce thought from one person to another by imitating. These replicators respond to selective pressures that may or may not affect biological reproduction or survival. [21] In her book The Meme Machine, Susan Blackmore views religions as particularly persistent memes. Many of the characteristics common to the most widely used religions offer benefits embedded in an evolving context, she writes. For example, religions that preach the value of faith over evidence of everyday experience or reason vaccinate societies against many of the most basic tools that people commonly use to evaluate their ideas. By linking altruism to religious affiliation, religious memes can spread more quickly because people perceive that they can reap social and personal rewards. The longevity of religious memes improves with their documentation in revered religious texts. [30] The term meme is a shortening (modeled on the gene) of mimeme, derived from the ancient Greek mīmēma (μίμημα; pronounced [míːmɛːma]), which means «imitated thing», or even from mimeisthai (μιμεῖσθαι, «to imitate»), from mimos (μῖμος, «pantomime»). [17] [18] [19] Although Richard Dawkins coined the term meme and developed the meme theory, he did not claim that the idea was completely new,[22] and there have been other expressions for similar ideas in the past. [23] Opinions differ on how best to apply the concept of memes in an «appropriate» disciplinary setting. One view views memes as a useful philosophical perspective for examining cultural evolution. Proponents of this view (such as Susan Blackmore and Daniel Dennett) argue that looking at cultural developments through the lens of memes—as if memes themselves were responding to pressure to maximize their own replication and survival—can lead to useful insights and provide valuable predictions about how culture evolves over time. Others, such as Bruce Edmonds and Robert Aunger, focused on the need to provide an empirical basis for memetics to become a useful and respected scientific discipline.
[51] [52] While you can yawn at a popular image or someone like Kim Kardashian, you can use anything you want to create a meme. As long as the emotion and meaning of creation are recognizable and identifiable, you`ve created a meme, Ingram-Waters said. Laughter is the best medicine: New study shows COVID memes reduce stress Dawkins initially defined memes as a name that «conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission or a unit of imitation.» [21] John S. Wilkins maintained the notion of meme as the core of cultural imitation, but emphasized the evolutionary aspect of the meme, defining the meme as «the smallest unit of sociocultural information relative to a selection process that exhibits a favorable or unfavorable selection bias that exceeds its endogenous tendency to change.» [36] The meme as a unit provides a convenient way to discuss «a piece of thought copied from person to person,» whether that thought contains others or is part of a larger meme. A meme could consist of a single word, or a meme could consist of the entire speech in which that word first appeared. This is an analogy with the idea of a gene as a single unit of self-replicating information found on the self-replicating chromosome. Memes reproduce by being copied from one nervous system to another, either by communication or imitation. Impersonation often involves copying another person`s observed behavior. Communication can be direct or indirect, with memes transmitted from one person to another through a copy recorded in an inanimate source such as a book or score. Adam McNamara suggested that memes can be classified as internal or external memes (i-memes or e-memes). [11] These emotions determine the memetic nature of the image. People can insert any statement, phrase, or statement into the meme as long as it relates to the emotions displayed, thus resonating with a demographic.
Within a culture, memes can take various forms, such as an idea, skill, behavior, phrase, or fad. Replication and transmission of a meme occurs when a person copies a unit of cultural information that includes a meme of another person. The process of transmission is mainly through verbal, visual or electronic communication, ranging from books and conversations to television, e-mail or the Internet.