Quote:
Originally Posted by april
I would call it a meme.
And I should know. After all, I am the expert.
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Isn't a meme, though, a repetition of a concept, phase, or idea that is socialized but not done so intentionally but because the idea falls into the zeitgeist? Kind of like a way of explaining internet synchronicity: You and I email each other the same link on the same date (having seen it on different sources) because we both find it amusing.
The link/idea/object then grows on and on, not intentionally but because the spirit of the time makes us all find it equally amusing. The "William Hung/She Bangs" phemomina we saw here in the U.S. a few years ago.
But as with many concepts, they pervert and now we have psudo-memes, ("April 20th", for example) where ideas are spread for the implied coolness the propagator assigns to them. They come around and around, not true memes, but rather rediscovered to those who wern't previously innitiated. High School and early College students are most susceptible to this.
The aspegers thing I see in this thread isn't a meme, but rather people sharing a common interest. A synchronistic meme would be more like you hearing Keith mention the aspegers test when that very morning beforehand you stumbled on the link, and at the same time you receive an email from a freind mentioning it. The concept/idea. Kind of like a bang! Everyone's talking about it at once.
A regular meme would be one spread not simultaneously but adopted/shared casually and not intentionally.
'Here - look at this!" and we all click on the link isn't a meme. We all are receiving the link from the same source at the same time. Rather, an example of a meme would be when I refer to a link, and you take it and refer to it elsewhere and soon everyone within a week happens to be looking at the same site. The site becomes a meme.
What I read CATPEE to refer to was picking up mannerisms.