What is a meme in social media?

What Is a Meme? A meme is a virally transmitted image embellished with text, usually sharing pointed commentary on cultural symbols, social ideas, or current events. A meme is typically a photo or video, although sometimes it can be a block of text.

What is a “meme” in linguistics?

In Mr. Dawkins’s original conception, a “meme” was analogous to a “phoneme,” the smallest unit of sound in speech, or a “morpheme,” the smallest meaningful subunit of a word, Kirby Conrod, a professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College, said.

What are memes & how do you understand them?

Here’s everything you need to know Memes are a cultural shorthand that, like all forms of communication, evolve with those who use them. Nobody can claim to know or understand every single meme that exists. There are simply too many, and they can often be too personal to the individuals creating and sharing them.

Why do memes spread so quickly?

A piece of media, often humorous, that spreads rapidly through the internet. With the instant communication that services like Twitter, Reddit, and similar allow us to perform online, it's no wonder that memes spread so quickly. Often, memes go through small alterations like the game of telephone. Sometimes, memes even beget new memes.