Memes probably became a familiar expression with the popularity of the humorous images, video, and texts spread over social media, but it was interesting to know that the term relates to a much more complex theory dating from 1976.
As defined in the dictionary, a meme is an element of a culture or system of behaviour passed from one individual to another by imitation or other non-genetic means. Imitation is an important keyword in understanding this concept. From the day we are born, we imitate our parents facial expressions and attempt to make sounds like their speech then we grow up imitating their taste in colours and clothes, beliefs, cultural behaviours and other aspects of the self and life. But if we think of how animals learn from their parents, this could also be seen as an imitation process, such as the bird’s learning to fly or the kittens predatory skills but those behaviours are innate and develop the same way across the same race which is not exactly what memes are.
Observing a kitten at the early stage of its life exhibits naturally acquired behaviors and body language.
The theory of memes is therefore a human feature that applies on the cultural transmission of selective behaviours like the reaction to a music genre for example as opposed to innate behaviours like laughter and yawning.
Memes are the result of people inclination to live in harmony and tendency to adopt what is generally admired and successful. The success of celebrities make them an example to follow, for their trends and styles no matter how extravagant they might be.
Selfies: a typical cultural meme
Communication technologies serve for a better transmission of memes, improving it as they evolve. As linguistic techniques evolved so has the transmission of memes from the radio, then the television, then the Internet which represents a significant step for memes.
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