Meme, unit of cultural information spread by imitation. The term meme (from the Greek mimema, meaning “imitated”) was introduced in 1976 by British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his work The Selfish Gene.
Examples of memes include beliefs, fashions, stories, and phrases. In previous generations, memes typically spread within local cultures or social groups.Today we see it as an image, video, piece of text, etc., that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users.
I went to knowyourmeme.com to find out about memes. This site is a sort of meme library where there are categories such as confirmed, submissions, researching, newsworthy, etc. Then there are subject groupings like culture, events, people, sites, subculture.
I've copied the summaries for a few "confirmed memes that are popular:"
Slender Man (a.k.a Slenderman) is a mythical creature often depicted as a tall, thin figure wearing a black suit and a blank face. According to the legend, he can stretch or shorten his arms at will and has tentacle-like appendages protruding from his back. Depending on the interpretations of the myth, the creature may cause memory loss, insomnia, paranoia, coughing fits (nicknamed "slendersickness"), photograph/video distortions and can teleport at will. The urban legend has inspired fan arts, fictional creepypastas and a mockumentary series in the style of the 1999 indie horror film Blair Witch Project. As the character has grown in popularity, he's gained a number of other nicknames including The Operator, Der Großmann, Mr. Slim, The Administrator, Daddy LongLegs, Mr. Thin, The Tall Man, The Thin Man and Slendy.
Doge is a slang term for "dog" that is primarily associated with pictures of Shiba Inus (nicknamed "Shibe") and internal monologue captions on Tumblr. These photos may be photoshopped to change the dog's face or captioned with interior monologues in Comic Sans font. Starting in 2017, Ironic Doge formats gained prevalence over the original wholesome version.
Navy Seal Copypasta (also known as the “Marine Copypasta”, "Internet Tough Guy Copypasta” and “Gorilla Warfare Copypasta”) is a facetious message containing a series of ridiculous claims and grandiose threats that portray the poster as an Internet tough guy stereotype. In the original post, the writer claimed to be a former Navy Seal with a long history of combat experiences, using comical typos and hyperboles like "Gorilla Warfare," “300 Confirmed Kills” and “I can kill you in over 700 ways with just my bare hands.” Since its emergence in mid-2012, the copypasta has spawned a variety of spin-off stories, similar to the John Copypasta meme.
There seems to be a large body of information on memes, about memes, and containing memes. I have just walked into the Library of Memes and it seems to be the size of the Library of Congress. Are memes "Time Wasters" or contributing to our social culture. They certainly comprise part of our economy - people are making money on memes. At the bottom of each page is Know Your Meme Store with posters, t-shirts and mugs for sale.
Today's image is poison ivy. Beautiful colours in the fall, a rampant climber, but also a ground spreader. Once you look, you can start seeing it everywhere. It grows alongside Virginia Creeper too. You can see more pictures here - https://www.poison-ivy.org/poison-ivy-fall
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