What is Meme?
Definition
Meme is a cultural acronym that, like all forms of communication, evolves with those who use it. No one can claim to know or understand all the memes out there. There are too many and often too personal for the people who create and share them. However, there are some general elements that can help you understand them.
How a Meme Become Meme?
Even if a meme seems impossible to understand, chances are you've come across at least one meme over the years that makes sense to you. Whether you've taken the Ice Bucket Challenge, have a "Keep Calm" mug on your desk at work, or used the words "Fail" or "Win," ironically or not, then you've participated in a meme. You know it by word of mouth, you understand it, you change the context and adapt it for your own use. And this is a key component of what makes a meme a meme.
Although the definition of a meme is difficult to understand, the term is most often associated with an image or video that represents a particular concept or idea that is then generally disseminated through online social platforms. The idea continues to proliferate across social media, forums, instant messaging apps, and even news sites. Images and videos that convey messages are often altered and constructed during this process, often resulting in the original idea evolving into something entirely different, or simply being posted with new captions to illustrate the altered form.
Context can have a big impact on what a meme also means or its relevance to its audiences.
Memes can also provide much more information than plain text. In the same way that emoji have been used to convey complex ideas of mood or emotion, memes can provide complex ideas, moods, or shared understanding much faster than writing and reading a written explanation of an idea.
How to Learn Meme
Some memes are easier to understand than others. The easiest ones are known as "picture macro" memes, which usually include some kind of expressive image and some block of text. They are assertive and designed to help convey emotional states in an easy to understand way. They recognize a shared experience between creator and viewer.
Others may be a bit more difficult to understand. Something like Slender Man can seem scary or dangerous. Others can be very obscure, referring to a particular episode of a TV show or movie that aired decades ago. Often times, the origins of such memes can be buried in such deep contexts that understanding their origins requires special research.
How important it is depends on why you want to understand the meme. If you just want to use it yourself, getting a rough idea of what it means from the most recent use is often enough to make you feel lonely and in on the joke.
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