Memes and Gifs

Introduction

An Internet meme is an activity, concept, catchphrase or piece of media which spreads, often as mimicry, from person to person via the Internet. An Internet meme may also take the form of an image (typically an image macro), hyperlink, video, website, or hashtag. It may be just a word or phrase, including an intentional misspelling. These small movements tend to spread from person to person via social networks, blogs, direct email, or news sources. They may relate to various existing Internet cultures or subcultures, often created or spread on various websites, or by Usenet boards and other such early-internet communications facilities. Fads and sensations tend to grow rapidly on the Internet, because the instant communication facilitates word-of-mouth transmission. Some examples include posting a photo of people lying down in public places (called “planking”) and uploading a short video of people dancing to the Harlem Shake.

Animated gifs (or just “gifs”) are a series of image files stacked and played in an order to simulate video.

Animated gifs can bring attention to topics and concepts in a way similar to video, but in a simpler file format. Virtually any video that does not require sound can be converted into an animated gif, eliminating the need for hosting or streaming large files.

Memes

The word meme was coined by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, as an attempt to explain the way cultural information spreads; Internet memes are a subset of this general meme concept specific to the culture and environment of the Internet. The concept of the Internet meme was first proposed by Mike Godwin in the June 1993 issue of Wired. In 2013 Dawkins characterized an Internet meme as being a meme deliberately altered by human creativity—distinguished from biological genes and Dawkins’ pre-Internet concept of a meme which involved mutation by random change and spreading through accurate replication as in Darwinian selection. Dawkins explained that Internet memes are thus a “hijacking of the original idea”, the very idea of a meme having mutated and evolved in this new direction. Further, Internet memes carry an additional property that ordinary memes do not—Internet memes leave a footprint in the media through which they propagate (for example, social networks) that renders them traceable and analyzable.

Internet memes are a subset that Susan Blackmore called temes—memes which live in technological artifacts instead of the human mind.

In the early days of the Internet, such content was primarily spread via email or Usenet discussion communities. Messageboards and newsgroups were also popular because they allowed a simple method for people to share information or memes with a diverse population of internet users in a short period. They encourage communication between people, and thus between meme sets, that do not normally come in contact. Furthermore, they actively promote meme-sharing within the messageboard or newsgroup population by asking for feedback, comments, opinions, etc. This format is what gave rise to early internet memes, like the Hampster Dance. Another factor in the increased meme transmission observed over the internet is its interactive nature. Print matter, radio, and television are all essentially passive experiences requiring the reader, listener, or viewer to perform all necessary cognitive processing; in contrast the social nature of the Internet allows phenomena to propagate more readily. Many phenomena are also spread via web search engines, internet forums, social networking services, social news sites, and video hosting services. Much of the Internet’s ability to spread information is assisted from results found through search engines, which can allow users to find memes even with obscure information.

An Internet meme may stay the same or may evolve over time, by chance or through commentary, imitations, parody, or by incorporating news accounts about itself. Internet memes can evolve and spread extremely rapidly, sometimes reaching worldwide popularity within a few days. Internet memes usually are formed from some social interaction, pop culture reference, or situations people often find themselves in. 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 used in viral marketing where they are an inexpensive form of mass advertising.

Gifs

In the last few years, there’s been an explosion in the use of GIFS – those little-looped videos that seem to be everywhere. Gen Z relies on visual-centric social media platforms, like GIFs, emoji, and memes, wherein they can both create and share visual content to express their emotions.

On social platforms, they embrace memes, visual narratives, GIFs and emoji to create fan art and provide their visual interpretations of shared cultural experiences and project their own emotions into their social media feeds. The visual narrative content posted on these platforms can largely be employed, remixed, and re-appropriated across one another and be reused for multiple purposes across multiple moments in time.

This creates a form of unity in social narratives, situating visual materials as both conversational and archival, across the platforms while also positing disunity and the breakdown of platform exclusive vernaculars.

Summary

Memes (usually images with brief text) and gifs (brief videos) are becoming increasingly popular as modes of communication. Popular culture tends to gravitate towards memes and gifs as a form of humor. Although these modes have been around for quite some time, they are now exploding with popularity.

Sources:

“Sandbox.” By Coty. Retrieved from: http://pressbooks-dev.oer.hawaii.edu/sandbox/chapter/animated-gifs/ Licensed under: CC-BY

“Trend Watch: How Gen Z Use GIFs to Convey Emotion and Celebrate Shared Cultural Moments.” By Derek E. Baird. Retrieved from: https://www.debaird.net/blendededunet/2018/02/how-gen-z-use-gifs-to-convey-emotion-and-shared-cultural-moments.html Licensed under: CC-BY Adapted by The American Women’s College.

“What is INTERNET MEME? What does INTERNET MEME mean? INTERNET MEME meaning & explanation.” By The Audiopedia. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Zi1ri__Szc Licenced under: CC-BY