Conversation with a meme expert

Internet memes are a multidimensional phenomenon of Internet culture. They bear the imprint of the personal experiences of the creators, making their experience public; they reflect the events of reality, informing and provoking discussion; they transmit the authors' worldview to other users, playing a role in the production and reproduction of culture. There are many types and forms of Internet memes, and each of them carries its own semantic message, which has a special effect on the audience. Memes are embedded in the description and interpretation of news and past experience, which affects the formation and addition of a social and individual picture of the world.

Internet memes are a growing Internet phenomenon based on social knowledge, individual experience, and creative imagination. Thanks to the Internet, the concept of a meme, paradoxically as it sounds, has mutated. Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, the creator of the term “meme”, defined it as a kind of analog of a gene in genetics, a cultural replicator, “a unit of transmission of cultural heritage, a unit of imitation.” The debate about whether such units exist in culture and whether it is worth taking such a methodology seriously did not subside before the advent of Internet memes. Internet memes did not take on the global task of acting as units of transmission of any culture and became associated with the phrases, images, or videos that spread virally on the Internet. However, it was these memes that began to reflect Internet culture most accurately. This is partly due to the fact that the Internet culture can be defined as “instant culture”, the culture of the moment, where new meanings quickly appear and disappear just as quickly. Internet memes have become “snapshots” of important cultural elements, including not only information about the general tradition, but also news and their interpretations.

Memes are everywhere. We are the generation that was watching the birth of memes and how they were growing up to global significance. Most of us know what was popular before and what is viral today. Nevertheless, more and more social and political scientists, psychologists and even philosophers are trying to understand the memes trend. So, I invited Alexa, a meme expert, to talk about this theme. 

We are discussing the most popular memes this year, the reasons why memes are so popular nowadays, the ways they may influence society badly and how they unite the global community.

You may listen to our podcast here:

https://soundcloud.com/user-174641971/memes-talk