How Internet Meemes Work: Infographic

Via: Online University

Meme, a term first coined by Richard Dawkins, is a cultural idea, be it fashion, technology, or ideology, that self-replicated and spreads among the people. Often compared to genes and evolution, a meme can experience variation and mutation; they can become extinct or they can evolve with society. 

In its most basic form, an Internet meme is simply an idea that is propagated through the Web. This idea may take the form of a hyperlink, video, website, hashtag, or even just a word or phrase. This meme may spread from person to person via social networks, blogs, direct email, news sources, and other web-based services.

An Internet meme may stay the same or may evolve over time, by chance or through commentary, imitations, parody, or even by collecting news accounts about itself. Internet memes can evolve and spread extremely rapidly, sometimes reaching world-wide popularity and vanishing all in a few days. They are spread organically, voluntarily, and peer-to-peer, rather than by predetermined or automated means.

Memes are commonly created on image boards, such as 4chan, and similar.

Their rapid growth and impact has caught the attention of both researchers and industry. Academically, researchers model how they evolve and predict which memes will survive and spread throughout the Web. Commercially, they are now actively used in viral marketing, seen as a free form of mass advertising. The Internet community itself has cultivated methods to encourage the generation and popularization of successful memes (examples: TED Talks, digg, hashtags).

An internet meme, on the other hands, is an idea that spreads quickly via, you guessed it, the internet. It’s the ‘viral’ in a viral video.