Reading Response 3 - Pui Yee Yiu

I thought memes were just ideas or one’s opinions that have been exaggerated or altered for entertainment sake before reading this article. I did not expect the name “meme” to have come from a Greek root and actually mean imitation. I had previously just assumed, we, the younger generation had named without much reasoning.

Memes was described in the article as something that connects us as a population. We share ideas, opinions or statements through memes and even communicate with each other through memes. Memes flows through our culture like a living form.

Richard Dawkins of memes linked memes with genes. Dawkins believed memes just like genes go through mutation and evolution. Memes are passed down from one to another with only half their traits making it to the next one. Like genes certain memes are more successful than others. The theory of memes being like genes can also be seen through how the descendants of one meme does not necessarily have to share any similar feature to its ancestor. We humans might pass on our genetic makeup to our offspring, but eventually after a few generations our traits will be lost or altered as our descendants mix with others, which runs true to memes too.

Darwinian thought can somewhat be applied to media and culture with the general idea of how memes might have started and pass on through the years. Memes rapid change and alter over time, but the meaning alter with it. The first intention of most memes is lost soon after a few generations of it. This is extremely similar to genes. We tend to forget why or where one meme might have come from. Keep Calm posters, a meme, can be seen all over the world, but we have forgotten how these posters were made to begin with. It’s meaning has been lost in the rapid evolution of these posters. 


Memes are shared all over the internet nowadays. Memes are altered within minutes and shared again. The time span of reproduction of memes and genes might not be the same, but the basic idea of passing on information is there. The internet definitely helped in the success of memes and without the internet memes wouldn't have been able to evolve as it did.