What the heck is a meme?
Ok, I know what a meme is in principal. But every time I asked someone to tell me what it is, I got this gobbledygook of technobabble about genes and evolution and conversation. And when I ask for an example, no one can remember one. And because I could never get a solid example, the concept was alway murky for me. But today, I fell into a meme. Now I know what it is. I'm going to share. A meme is a web-based conversation that generally has a life of its own. Consider the email-based urban myth about Madelyn Murray O'Hare trying to get religious programs off TV. That's a meme. It's not a good thing, but that's an example. Memes have basic characteristics in all their forms. That's where the gene thing comes into being. My son and I look different, but we share the same genes. A meme can appear in many conversations that appear completely unrelated, but there are certain aspects of the conversation that link th...