A meme indeed is passed around and around when a person copies or imitates something. That something can be sounds, attitudes, and even movements. When we are told something, we might not recite the same sentence word from word to someone, but we surely pass parts of it to the individual. This is an example of a meme. “We humans, because of our powers of imitation, have become just the physical ‘host’ needed for the meme to get around” (37). The meme uses us to make itself known to the world. In this case, we have no control over ourselves or the meme and let the meme get around. It is superior and dominates our thoughts and ideas. All this time we thought that we make our own decisions, however through the “meme’s eye view”, our brain activity is old and …show more content…
The genes battle and the ones that win, live and the ones that lose, die. Similarly, the memes fight and the meme that succeeds lives and the meme that loses, dies out. In order for the meme to win, it uses humans as rocks in the water to lay its foot on and survive from falling in the water. We depend on the memes to help our ideas get from generation to generation. “Something; some kind of information, some kind of instruction, has become lodged in all those brains so that now we all do the same thing at birthday parties. That something is what we call the meme” (37). Our culture and traditions are memes that were handed down to us and in the future, we will hand down to someone else. All the traditions we follow during festivals or parties are ideas that spread because they survived. Moreover, memes can also be thought as viruses. When we catch a virus, we are in no control of our body. We get a fever, headache and even feel weak. We do not choose to get sick but the virus causes these changes in our body. It also wants to be transmitted to other bodies. When we sneeze, shake hands or cough the virus spreads itself on the other living
The widely used motto “United we stand, divided we fall” exemplifies the importance of a strong, stable human structure needed to succeed. It may be the structure of an empire, or the biological makeup of the human body, these systems in our world are not only desired by human nature, but are essential for progress. Though it’s true that humans naturally desire patterns, structures and standards in their lives, the underlying intention for these patterns isn’t to provide shelter or refuge, but to rather provide a pathway to function and achieve various goals, moral or immoral.
Many people believe that if you don’t succeed at first, you must try and try again until you succeed. The reason for people to believe in this belief is because its gets transmitted constantly through others. But the thing is that people don’t know how to distinguish false or true beliefs, what often causes us to believe in beliefs has to do with our society. A Harvard college professor of psychology, Daniel Gilbert, wrote a book called Stumbling on Happiness, explaining how people tend to have delusions about their future which often misleads people’s happiness. In the final chapter, Gilbert makes a resemblance between genes and beliefs, he describes how they both pass along things in order to create the transmission they try to send on. He
"The very creativity and activity of human minds as temporary homes for memes seems to guarantee that lines of descent are hopelessly muddled, and that phenotypes (the "body designs" of memes) change so fast that there's no keeping track..." (Dennett 355)
The culture of a community invariably determines the social structures and the formation of a society. Developed over time, culture is the collection of beliefs and values that a group of people maintain together. Culture is never constant, and thought to be continually renewed over years as new ideas and concepts become mainstream. It ranges from how people live, day to day topics for conversations, religion, and even entertainment. It is analogous to guidelines, or the rulebook of the said group of people. Society, on the other hand, emanates from the social structure of the community. It is the very institutions to which create a regulated and acceptable form of interaction between peoples. Indeed, culture and society are so perversely intertwined in a
Culture often means an appreciation of the finer things in life; however, culture brings members of a society together. We have a sense of belonging because we share similar beliefs, values, and attitudes about what’s right and wrong. As a result, culture changes as people adapt to their surroundings. According to Bishop Donald, “let it begin with me and my children and grandchildren” (211). Among other things, culture influences what you eat; how you were raised and will raise your own children? If, when, and whom you will marry; how you make and spend money. Truth is culture is adaptive and always changing over time because
It is our cultural heritage that determines how we interact with different people. Cultural heritage is learned through the techniques of our parents, peer groups, schools, religious institutions, government agencies, media, and/or the village community. This learning process also guides the way we speak, how we dress, our lifestyle, food, value system, beliefs, artifacts, and the environment in which we live in. In essence, cultural heritage reflects ones language, ones ways of thinking, art and laws, as well as religion. In addition, learned behavior is defined as being transmitted from one generation to another through the process of enculturation.
...a person either looks at thing from only one view point (Example: only seeing details), or when he or she looks at them in terms of a specific scientific study or philosophy. The idols of the marketplace apply in terms of the language that is used to communicate (Chambers and Dahl). One example is the slang that people from different places use to refer to numerous concept, such as using the term “sweet” to refer to something that is amazing or brilliant. The idols of the theater apply in terms of transferring knowledge to others (Chambers and Dahl). More specifically, these idols apply to the way knowledge is presented, whether it is through a live presentation, or a video.
...its members to adhere to it could be established that it does in fact hold a huge influence over the way and nature we use our body. Culture through its system of symbols, that are structurally formed, through habitus, serves to teach us how to behave in order to become a fully fledged member of our given society. These symbols are further reinforced through the intuitions of family and education, the media, fashion and perceived societal norms. This affects the many ways in which we use our body, from the technique of walking through to sleeping, whilst also helping us to classify our social identity of gender and age. It is only through learning, continual practice and adhering to constant self control of one’s self, that we are able to do this successfully making every action we make a taken for granted “gymnastic art, perfected in our own day” (Mauss 1934:456).
Zipes is not using ‘institutionalised’ in the traditional, negative sense of being rigid and never evolving. He theorises that fairy tales have become part of the social psyche. They permeate into every aspect of the social unconscious to become meme, examples of which are ‘tunes, ideas and catchphrases’ (Montgomery, 2009, p. 46). Zipes proposes that this meme is similar to a virus mutating and evolving with each generation. Each generation’s variation reflects their ideas and concepts regarding universal aspects of human existence like love, identity, revenge, sexuality and betrayal.
In Patrick Davison’s essay “The Language of internet memes”, he describes his definition of an internet meme through the anyasis of Richard Dawkins article “The Selfish Gene”. Davison describes an internet meme as “a piece of culture, typically a joke, which gains influence through online transmission”. Davison states that not all internet memes are jokes but the speed they are shared makes them unique, as opposed to jokes that are shared written or verbally.
...o shape interpretations through presentation of meaning and experience, it must be accepted that popular culture artifacts have agency ranging from the individual level to the level of international politics.
Blackmore, Susan. “The Theory [of Memes] is Promising and Testable.” Free Inquiry. 2000 (Summer), 20.3
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary a meme is “an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture.” Memes create a way for people to interact without necessarily interacting, primarily because there is a common theme between people. Thus providing a means of communication and connection. For example, dancers connect online through the common understanding of how difficult it is to seem effortless. In general they enjoy making sure that no one mistakes their talent as a simplistic art form. Therefore the usage of memes allow dancers online to communicate or simply enjoy laughing at their common struggles. Memes develop their appeal through their ability to convey ideas, themes, as well as practices
The 21st century has brought a lot of modern ideas, innovations, and technology. One of these is social media. The invention of Facebook has completely changed the way we communicate with one another. Instant messaging, photo sharing, and joining online groups have created a way for families and friends to connect. Some argue that Facebook is the greatest invention however, while it is seemingly harmless, Facebook has created an invasion of privacy. The accessibility of Facebook and its widespread use has created privacy problems for users, teens, and interviewees by allowing easy control to viewers.
Mass culture emerged as a concept that describes how human beings have developed to think alike and do things in the same way. The predictability of human beings is evident in their private interactions and position about many things that faced the modern day society. It had bec...