Internet memes and cultural expression in digital society

¶ … behavior of an organism is determined by memes. Instances of memes are pottery and ways of constructing arches, attire and fashion, tunes and cliches. Memes multiply themselves in the meme pool by jumping from brain to brain through a process which can generally be referred to as imitation in the same way that genes are propagated in the pool of gene transmission from a body through eggs or sperms. So in this case, whenever a scientist encounters a good idea either by hearing it or reading it, he/she coveys this to his/her colleagues and students by mention this in both lectures and notes. And if the idea is acceptable and embraced, it is therefore held to undergo propagation when it spreads from one brain to another (Intro to Media Studies, n.d. pp 18-20).

Thesis Statement

Meme is an expression of an individual or more than one person that provides a deep sight into the internet culture.

How it affects culture?

Internet memes shape up because of a certain culture on the rise or different events taking place. They help in shaping up the opinions of a lot of people and have a huge impact on the lives and culture of the people using the internet. The users, when come across a certain meme that covers their interest, share it on their social media profiles and can be seen by the people on their lists. This is further promoted by more people and soon spreads through the entire internet. Moreover, once this culture spreads across the internet, even the advertising companies capture the trend and utilize it to attract audiences.

What is it going to prove?

A widely distributed meme proves the current trend that the social media users are into. It starts out as an opinion of an individual and then spreads out to become and opinion of maximum users of the internet. This helps the professionals to understand the audience and how it can help to attract people for their own purposes as well.

Meme

Meanwhile in another universe: "Well, there goes another school teacher who makes 10 million bucks a year. Meanwhile, I'm working my butt off playing professional hoops and I can barely pay rent." (meme-lol.com, 2014)

Figure 1(meme-lol.com, 2014)

Description

This is a sarcastic meme explaining about the reality of every day professional lives of people. "Meanwhile in another universe" is a meme that switches lives of two people which in reality explains the position of one another. This particular meme puts forward the reality of two professionals i.e. teachers and basketball players.

Significance of the meme

It affects the culture in a drastic way because it shows the reality of how a person responsible for the education of the future generation is has a low pay grade while a person who only plays to survive earns millions and enjoys the high life. Switching the personalities in this way helps understand the message in a more obvious way and might help in understanding the level of importance of both the professions. It proves the level of importance of both the professions and the current reality of both the professionals. Internet is widely used by people and social media has become an important part of their lives. It has become a platform of spreading a message that reaches maximum number of people at one time. It is not limited to a certain group of people but is used by professionals belonging to different professions. This meme highlights two important professions that cover the current employment culture through the social media. Putting it in a sarcastic way proves its value and that something should be done about this matter.

Richard Dawkins and 'The Selfish Gene'

Richard Dawkins wrote "The Selfish Gene" that cast contempt on the notion that living things are forced genetically to act in ways that are only desirable for the species. He tries to reinforce his argument by asserting that the primary units of species are not genetic, individuals or families but is instead peculiar strands of genetic DNA. When he concludes his treatise, Dawkins examines two aspect into which the theory of evolution could be headed to. It is in this context that he invents the term meme. He acknowledges the fact that