What is a meme?

March 29, 2010 Aboyd20

According to the chapter on memes, they 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.” What exactly does this imply about memes? Well most of the time memes will refer to popular culture references or popular phrases, videos, e-mail, etc that in essence spread rapidly and become “viral.” Also, memes have to do with the transmission of these ideas and the possible changes people may make to them. In class the example used was the game of telephone, but another example could be how things are interpreted to mean over forms of communication such as: text, e-mail, etc.

A specific meme I found interesting is the Star Wars Kid. A male student created a video of himself swinging a golf ball retriever around as a weapon and this was placed at the end of a school basketball game video. The clip was uploaded to internet and spread very quickly–becoming viral. Television shows, such as American Dad, even picked the clip up and incorporated it into episodes.

This meme spread because it was humorous; yet, teachers have to think of repercussions of memes like these. Also, we have to think about memes that may not be as offensive and how to address memes in the class and how they affect technology.

Memes mean we as teachers need to be aware of popular culture references because our students are aware of them. Watching television shows and staying current about certain themes that appear on websites and blogs are of the utmost importance in teaching to those in a meme world.