This word (pronounced to rhyme with ‘cream’) turns up often in the media, and it still leaves many people puzzled.
It was coined in 1976 by biologist Richard Dawlins in his book The Selfish Gene.
His theory was that just as there are biological ‘genes’ that carry human characteristics from person to person, so there must be something similar in culture that carries fashionable notions from person to person in a society.
He called these fashion notions ‘memes’—choosing a one syllable word like ‘gene’ that comes from a Greek source meaning ‘imitation.’
Dawkins said: ‘Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes, fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches.’
Supposedly a meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices, that can be transmitted from one mind to another.
These days the things most commonly called ‘memes’ are on social media—frequently in the form of AI generated images (or animations) that mock an idea or a person.
Politicians have been known to complain about social media ‘memes’ that mock them.
I think this has drifted a long way from Richard Dawkins original use of the word ‘meme.’
He meant something that would move through society as silently as a gene moves through a population.
But ‘meme’ is now being used for obviously generated images (or animations) clearly invented for the purpose of spreading an idea (often a mocking idea).
My own view is that Dawkins’ original notion of a ‘meme’ was nonsense.
Human society doesn’t function like a biological mechanism—there are too many choices made at too many points for such an idea to hold water.
However, the new, altered meaning of ‘meme’—a simplified notion captured by a slogan or an image—makes more sense, since it records something that human being do intentionally.
Now, if you had found the word ‘meme’ puzzling—have I made it any clearer?
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If you'd like to see my A-Z list of Aussie slang, you'll find it here in the Australian Geographic website -- A-Z list of Aussie slang. Here’s the link: The A-Z of Aussie slang - Australian Geographic
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