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1 Holly Lipschultz Internet Memes Pathfinder Spring 2011 Part 1 Discussion of Topic The idea of memes (meems) began in Richard Dawkins 1976 book, The Selfish Gene, where he coined the term in order to explain the concept of a small idea that mutates and spreads, much in the way viruses do in order to survive. That explains why when an Internet meme becomes popular, it is considered to be viral. While Dawkins focused on the biological aspects of memes, the memes discussed here are largely a sociological phenomenon facilitated by the Internet. Memes range from the benign Rick Roll, to the disturbing Pedobear, to the pornographic shock sites such as Tub Girl. Internet memes can begin anywhere, but there are a few websites that are considered to be incubator of memes, including Reddit, 4chan, Fark, and so on. Other websites, such as Memebase and Urlesque, primarily exist to popularize or facilitate the spread the memes. There are some encyclopedias and dictionaries explaining various memes, like Know Your Meme, Urban Dictionary, or Encyclopedia Dramatica. Know Your Meme is the most authoritative of the bunch, while Encyclopedia Dramatica is very NSFW (not safe for work the acronym is an example of a meme.) Audience The audience for the Internet Memes pathfinder will be freshmen and sophomore students at the University of Chicago, who may be writing their first college- level research papers for introductory English classes.

2 Scope of the Pathfinder The pathfinder will discuss the major sources of and resources about Internet memes, focusing on the sociological and psychological aspects. It will provide an overview of the history of the idea of the meme, and will not include any information about biological memetics. The discussion will explain various subject headings and databases used by the University of Chicago and why they will help the students find resources, including useful keywords that will help researchers narrow their search results. All resources should be no worse than a PG- 13 rating that is, it will not discuss explicit memes. Challenges in Researching The students may not be sure how to conduct a scholarly search for the subject, where to look, or what search terms to use. For example, Rage Guy or Sad Keanu are transient memes that won t return results in scholarly databases, and a Google search would only return image memes featuring either Rage Guy or Sad Keanu. There are probably no published papers written about Rebecca Black s Friday, nor about Rule 34. There are some additional challenges in researching Internet memes that are not immediately apparent. For example, the students may not know about the term memetics, nor where the idea of the meme originated, both of which will help in the research process. Also, searching for memes returns many results (and many of them in French), of which only a tiny fraction is about the subject. Most of the results deal with evolutionary science, so by adding internet as a delimiter helps to cut down on biological search results. It takes careful selection of databases and knowledge of subject areas in order to find information about the social science and psychology aspects of memetics. The

3 freshmen and sophomores may also neglect to check for book resources, gravitating instead toward Internet resources, considering the topic. Criteria for Inclusion Resources will only be considered for inclusion if: 1. They can be accessed through the databases at the University of Chicago, 2. or on the internet, both of which can be readily accessed by the University of Chicago students. 3. Only books that the University of Chicago Libraries own will be considered, in order to minimize the need for an interlibrary loan. While there are undoubtedly books at the Chicago Public Library, the library holdings at the university are extensive enough that many students don t feel the urge to go to a CPL location. 4. Because of the nature of the subject, non- scholarly resources about memes will be included only if they are largely stable and reputable in terms of content. Memetics relating to the Internet is still a new enough of a field that other researchers haven t published very many articles or papers about the topic. Also, popular memes change quickly as is the nature of memes, that any published papers would quickly go out of date. Sometimes the best source of information comes from the propagators of memes. 5. The resources should be either specifically about Internet memes, or 6. the resources should be relevant the study of Internet memes that is, the psychology or sociology of how memes spread, as that will help students flesh out their papers about what drives Internet memes.

4 7. If the resource is a source of memes, the memes should be no worse than PG- 13 in content. 8. All content must be in English. Part 2a Bibliography of Selected Sources with Annotations Books Aunger, R. (Ed.) (2000). Darwinizing culture: The status of memetics as a science. Oxford: Oxford University Press. A collection of chapters written by various authors from a wide variety of backgrounds, this book gives readers a broad look at memetics as a functional theory. Each chapter, written from biological, sociological, psychological, or some other disciplinary approach, is full of relevant footnotes to help students on their research path. This book fits criteria numbers 3, 6, and 8. Dawkins, R. (1989). The selfish gene. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Only one chapter in the book is relevant to the topic of memes, but it is the seminal source of memetics, and this bibliography and the pathfinder would be amiss if his book were not included. While the University of Chicago has the 1976 printing of The Selfish Gene, the 1989 book contains helpful revised footnotes by the author, who reflected on how his idea about memes became a meme in of itself. This chapter fits criteria numbers 3, 5, and 8. Gunders, J. & Brown, D. (2010). The complete idiot s guide to memes. New York: Penguin Group.

5 This book provides the definition, history, and the science of what makes memes viral, and covers various sorts of memes such as religious, technological, marketing, and of course, Internet memes. While researchers will only need to read chapters 1, 2, and 4, the other chapters are relevant should the researcher want to consider other types of memes. Appendix C contains useful resources for further research. This is an excellent resource and fits criteria numbers 3, 5, and 8. Lynch, A. (1996). Thought contagion. New York: Basic Books. An early look at memes and memetics, the entire book is intriguing. Chapters 1 and 2 are the most useful. Chapter 1 looks at theories of how memes propagate, evolve, and survive, while Chapter 2 discusses memetics within the various social sciences. Lynch s book will provide rich context for the study of Internet memes, and the bibliography will provide early resources on the subjects of memes and mind viruses. It fits criteria numbers 3, 5, and 8. Wasik, B. (2009). And then there s this: How stories live and die in viral culture. New York: Penguin Group. Wasik examines what makes ideas suddenly popular and what makes them fade away in his readable book, illustrating the discussion with stories from his own experiments in social engineering. While the entire book is ostensibly about viral culture, it is relevant as viral culture is intrinsically linked with memes spread on the Internet. He does devote an entire chapter to specifically Internet memes. While not as useful as the Complete Idiot s Guide to Memes, it does provide an interesting look at viral culture. As such, it satisfies criteria numbers 3, 6, and 8. Articles and Papers

6 Atran, S. (2001). The trouble with memes: Inference vs. imitation in cultural creation. Human Nature 12(4), DOI: /s This is a terrific, detailed overview of the nature of memes, and the role of culture in its replication and mutation. Atran argues that memes rapidly mutate, and memes are most likely to be transmitted if they are cognitively easy to understand by people. Students can readily apply the knowledge and theory in this article to the subject of Internet memes. Thus, it satisfies criteria numbers 1, 6, and 8. Aunger, R. (2005). Cultural transmission and diffusion. In Encyclopedia of cognitive science. Retrieved from wileycs/cultural_transmission_and_diffusion#ec86 This encyclopedic entry provides an overview of how culture is transmitted, how the brain processes it, and, of course, a section about the relatively new theory of cultural transmission, memetics. The broad general knowledge serves as a great way to begin studying cultural memes. As such, it satisfies criteria numbers 1, 5, 6, and 8. Ball, J. (1984). Memes as replicators. Ethology and sociobiology, 5(3), DOI: / (84) This is an old (relatively speaking) article about memes, published closer to the date of Dawkins The Selfish Gene than to the advent of wide- spread Internet memes, but it does a great job of explaining the theoretical consequences of adopting the memetic hypotheses. This article could be characterized as a reaction to the scientific community s reaction to The Selfish Gene, that is, it s a second generation reaction. This would provide a fascinating insight to any study of Internet memes,

7 and as such, satisfies criteria numbers 1, 6, and 8. Gleick, J. (2011, May). What defines a meme? Smithsonian. Retrieved from culture/what- Defines- a- Meme.html?c=y&story=fullstory This article, adapted from Gleick s book, A History, A Theory, a Flood, provides a brief and yet comprehensive definition, description, and history of memes. Written in a conversational manner, Gleick looks at the science and sociology of memes, as well as the meme of the meme. This fits criteria numbers 2, 5, and 8. Grossman, L. (2008, July). The master of memes. Time. 172(3), Grossman discusses 4chan and its creator, Christopher Poole (known as moot). 4chan is a profane, barely moderated, online community that is the source of many memes. One of its more famous memes is the celebration of every Saturday as Caturday, when people post pictures of captioned cats. This meme eventually evolved into the I Can Has Cheezburger empire, created by Ben Huh. This article, accessed through EBSCO Academic Search Premier, provides a good insight into a source of memes and as such, fits criteria numbers 1, 5, and 8. Heath, C., Bell, C., & Sternberg, E. (2001). Emotional selection in memes: The case of urban legends. Journal of personality and social psychology. 81(6), DOI: / This article compares memes and urban legends, arguing that both rely on informational and emotional selection to replicate themselves through shared emotions such as anger, fear, or disgust. This is relevant enough to Internet memes, because urban legends use the Internet as a means of spreading. As such, this fits

8 criteria numbers 1, 6, and 8. Heylighen, F. (1996). Evolution of Memes on the Network: from chain- letters to the global brain. Retrieved from: This early article about memes on the Internet explains the mechanics of how memes replicate themselves. It fits criteria numbers 2, 5, and 8. Jahoda, G. (2002). The ghosts in the meme machine. History of the Human Sciences, 15(2), DOI: / Richard Dawkins first put forth the idea of memes, and Susan Blackmore developed the idea further. However, Jahoda argues that the idea of imitation in society is not new, and that Blackmore s writings about memetics is highly questionable since she does not refer to her theoretical predecessors enough in her work. Jahoda, throughout this paper, refers to early writings on what we now refer to as memetics. This fits criteria numbers 2, 6, and 8. Memetics. (2001). In Encyclopedia of Urban Legends. Retrieved from This encyclopedia article gives an overview of the theory of memetics as applied to folklore transmission and urban legends. Urban legends, in modern day, are internet memes since they are spread online, so it s relevant to Internet memes for the purpose of this pathfinder. Fits criteria numbers 1, 5, 6, and 8. Richard Dawkins. (2011). In Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from: Richard- Dawkins This provides a biographical background of the originator of the theory of memes.

9 Fits criteria numbers 1, 6, and 8. Schmid, H. (2004). Evolution by imitation: Gabriel Tarde and the limits of memetics. Scandinavian journal of social theory, 5(2), DOI: 1080/ X Schmid discusses the theory of memetics and compares it to traditional sociology, explaining that sociology focuses on people as the creator of ideas, while memetics focuses on ideas as if they were a biological form of their own. Schmid also brings in an opposing theory, of evolution by association, created by Gabriel Tarde, Though it s published in a Scandinavian journal, the article is still in English. Fits criteria 1, 6, and 8. Other Resources Cheezburger sites. (2011). Cheezburger, Inc. Retrieved from: Ben Huh, the founder of the I Can Has Cheezburger (ICHC) empire, has developed and aquired a series of websites that serve as a go- to place for people to see and create memetic images, gifs (a small snippet of a video set to constantly replay). Memes abound within nearly all of the websites under the ICHC name, and researchers can see the development of Internet memes in real- time, as ideas replicate and mutate rapidly. No resource would be complete without mentioning ICHC. As such, this fits criteria numbers 2, 4, 5, and 8. HuffPost Urlesque. (2011). TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. Retreived from: After AOL bought the Huffington Post and Urlesque, among other websites, they merged Urlesque into the Huffington Post. While the former Urlesque website still

10 exist as a sort of archive, all new content is published to this new website. It is stable and well- supported, and so fits criteria numbers 2, 4, 5, 7, and 8. Know Your Meme. (2011). Cheezburger, Inc. Retrieved from: This website is the equivalent of a meme encyclopedia, explaining the origins of memes. Often, articles will be created by users shortly after a meme goes viral, that is, becomes exceedingly popular. Staff at Know Your Meme will also conduct research and update articles as memes mutate. This is a stable resource, and fits criteria numbers 2, 4, 5, 7, and 8. Memebase. (2011). Cheezburger, Inc. Retrieved from: Even though I have previously cited all of the Cheezburger websites, Memebase deserves a citation of its own, since it is the go- to site for meme replication and mutation, as evidenced by the title. This shows memes in action. Fits criteria numbers 2, 4, 5, 7, and 8. Mikkelson, B., & Mikkelson, D. (2011). Snopes. Urban Legends Reference Pages. Retrieved from: Snopes has been the go- to website for proving or disproving urban legends and other memes that replicate and mutate online, for 16 years. The team at Snopes will track down the source of the meme, and if the meme differs from the source, they will see how it eventually mutated to the incorrect meme at present. Useful for research involving the how memes differ from the source material. This site fits criteria numbers 2, 4, 5, 7, and 8. Urlesque (2011). Urlesque. Retrieved from: This website, like the I Can Has Cheezburger empire, is also a place where memes

11 propagate and mutate. Articles about specific memes that are trending, that is, currently popular, are written and published, syndicating memes from all over the Internet into one place. As of April 2011, however, AOL bought Urlesque and several other sites, merging Urlesque into a page within the Huffington Post. This main website still exists for researchers to delve into past memetic trends. It is a stable, well- supported, and well- regulated website (albeit regulated by its audience), and as such, fits criteria numbers 2, 4, 5, 7, and 8. Part 2b Bibliography of Rejected Sources 4chan. (2011). Retrieved from This site, created and run by Christopher Poole, username of moot, is a very fruitful source of memes. The I Can Has Cheezburger empire exists because the idea of captioning cats and Caturday (when people post numerous pictures of cats on Saturdays) began here. Users don t have to register to post, and this site has very few rules, which leads to a very unstable, rapidly changing website where shock porn pictures are often seen next to stills from the My Little Pony TV show. As such, this fails criteria number 7. Barr, L. (2010). Contradicting an internet rumor via traditional and social media: Campaign Obama s anti- Muslim/Pro- Christian rhetoric. International journal of technology, knowledge, and society 6(4), Too focused on the subject of how President Obama refuted the secret Muslim fears. Though secret Muslim is a meme, it s not applicable enough to Internet

12 memes in general. (Criteria 6). Bentley, R. & Shennan, S. (2003, July). Cultural transmission and stochastic network growth. American Antiquity 68(3), Not at all related to internet memes (Criteria 6). Coombe, R. & Herman, A. (2004, Summer). Rhetorical virtues: Property, speech, and the commons on the world- wide web. Anthropological Quarterly 77(3), Not relevant to internet memetics (Criteria 6). Gatherer, D. (2002). Identifying cases of social contagion using memetic isolation: Comparison of dynamics of a multisociety simulation with an ethnographic data set. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation 5(4). Retrieved from: Not at all related to internet memes. (Criteria 6). Heath, C. & Heath, D. (2007). Made to stick: Why some ideas survive and others die. New York: Random House. Not relevant enough to internet memetics (Criteria 6). Internet phenomenon. (2006). In Dictionary of Media Studies. Retrieved from internet_phenomenon While this is about internet memes, it s not relevant enough since it does not have enough information (Criteria 6). Main Page. (2011). Encyclopedia Dramatica. Retrieved from:

13 This website, while it can be the source of memes, is highly unstable as users purposefully write articles in a misleading and vulgar way to shock readers. Shock pictures of porn abound throughout the website. As such, this fails criteria number 7. Marks, J. (2004). What, if anything, is Darwinian anthropology? Social Anthropology 12, DOI: /S It discusses anthropological memetics, which is not related enough to Internet memetics as sociology is, so does not meet Criteria 6. Marshall, G. (n.d.). The internet and memetics. Retrieved from: Though it discusses memetics and the Internet, the author is using memes to explain how the Internet works, and thus, it is not about Internet memes nor relevant enough to the study thereof (criteria 5 and 6). Riley, J. (2006). Genes, memes and justice. Analyse & Kritik 28(1), Retrieved from: und- kritik.net/2006-1/inhalt.htm It focuses on memes relating to criminal justice, and is not at all applicable to Internet memes (criteria 6). Tomlinson, M. (2004). Memes and metaculture: The politics of discourse circulation in Fiji. Australian journal of anthropology, 15(2), Not relevant enough to Internet memes focuses too specifically on the memetics of politics in Fiji (criteria 6). Transforming English language arts in a web 2.0 world. (2011, March). Handbook of Research on Teaching the English Language Arts. London: Routledge.

14 Not relevant to internet memetics (Criteria 6). Weeks, J., & Galunic, C. (2003). A theory of the cultural evolution of the firm: The intra- organizational ecology of memes. Organization Studies 24(8), DOI: / This focuses on memes in the firm, that is, a company, and is not relevant enough to Internet memes (criteria 6). Part 3

What is a Meme? Brent Silby 1. What is a Meme? By BRENT SILBY. Department of Philosophy University of Canterbury Copyright Brent Silby 2000

What is a Meme? Brent Silby 1. What is a Meme? By BRENT SILBY. Department of Philosophy University of Canterbury Copyright Brent Silby 2000 What is a Meme? Brent Silby 1 What is a Meme? By BRENT SILBY Department of Philosophy University of Canterbury Copyright Brent Silby 2000 Memetics is rapidly becoming a discipline in its own right. Many