Meme oh meme
Postman writes in Chapter 4 that memes are “contagious patterns of cultural information that are passed from mind to mind and directly shape and propagate key actions and mindsets of a social group”. Memes are important to understand and acknowledge, especially as educators of young people. While some memes are an integral part of our culture for only a short time, most last for significant periods of time and shape some aspect of our society in one way or another.
Successful memes share three characteristics that support the idea that educators must understand old and new memes. These characteristics include fidelity, fecundity and longevity.
Fidelity refers to the ease of spreading the meme. Soldier Boy’s “Crank that Superman” video is a great example of a meme that spread because of YouTube. Nearly everyone under the age of 21 has seen this video and probably knows the dance. Adaptations and variations flooded the internet after the release of this video, demonstrating its popularity. YouTube allowed Soldier Boy to gain instant fame because of the millions of views his video received.
Fecundity refers to the quickness that the meme spreads and becomes popular. Most successful memes spread throughout the internet and other media in a number of days and become popular instantly. An example of this is the popularity of the iPhone. As soon as this product hit the market, thousands of people purchased this new technology immediately. Phones with basic email capabilities, cameras and standard phone applications became a thing of the past almost over night. The iPhone revolutionized the cell phone, raising the standard for all Mobile companies.
Longevity refers to the amount of time the meme survives and is an integral part of our society. The more successful the meme, the longer we can see its implications in our culture. Facebook is a great example of a meme that will probably last for a very long time. This social networking site has advanced tremendously since its start, adding new applications almost every day, and expanding to include people of all ages.
One meme on the internet is a website that promotes an idea similar to the concept in the movie “Pay it Forward”. This site emphasizes the importance of people doing good deeds to help others out. From this site, you can gain ideas of small acts of kindness that can become “viral”, such as paying the fee for a toll for the person in the car behind you, or paying for a coffee for the next guest in line. The mission of this website is to inform people of this concept of doing a thoughtful action that helps someone else out, and then giving them a card that reads “Now it’s your Turn”, instructing them that they should do a good deed for someone else and then pass that person a card. As more people engage in this act of reaching out, the world can become a more generous place. This site also has links to other web pages about acts of kindness, such as Peace Day, the My Hero Project, and others.
