Families and you will Companies from Websites Memes: The partnership Between Cohesiveness, Individuality, and you can Quiddity Concreteness

This study makes use of an enormous-scale quantitative studies to disclose architectural patterns out-of sites memes, emphasizing 2 forces that join him or her together with her: the fresh quiddities of each meme family unit members plus the general popular features of brand new wider memetic areas. Using articles and you can circle research off 1013 meme hours (plus video, photographs, and you can text), i explore memes’ commonplace quiddity types and you can general possess, while the ways they get in touch with each other. The findings show that (a) large cohesiveness out of meme group is for the a heightened uniqueness of its universal features; and you can (b) brand new concreteness away from meme quiddities was for the cohesiveness and you can uniqueness. I talk about the implications ones results to the understanding of websites memes and you will participatory culture.

Family and you can Channels out-of Websites Memes: The relationship Between Cohesiveness, Uniqueness, and you may Quiddity Concreteness

Internet memes, bits of electronic blogs you to spread around the net in different iterations, features has just started scholarly desire across several industries (Bennett & Segerberg, rencontre sur médias sociaux 2012 ; Milner, 2012 ; Shifman, 2013 ). Although many studies grab a good qualitative method to examining the social concept of memes, throughout the adopting the post we apply large-level decimal analysis to help you let you know specific legislation and regularities underpinning it fundamentally crazy industries. Memes was an integral part of brand new fantastically dull “online diet plan” of numerous Internet users, casually appearing within the check outs to programs for example Youtube, Fb, and Reddit. The memetic dynamic try from the being trivial. They require disparate profiles in the world to do for the performance, starting and you may circulating articles within the several distinctions along divergent networks, while maintaining the affinity and you can common attributes.

That it paper is aimed at losing white about precisely how Sites memes continue to be fastened together even with their active and you may lively contexts out-of articulation. In its basic part i place the background in regards to our journey from the showing the stress within top features of private meme circumstances, meme family, and the entire memetic system. We define websites memes because groups of electronic textual equipment written and you will distributed by of many professionals, which are bound with her by a couple of forces: (a) a provided quiddity that’s certain to every members of the family, constituting their just one essence; and you will (b) more standard functions off setting, stuff, and you will posture that draw to your conventions of your own “meme people.” Building with this abstract distinction, i found in another area brand new tries powering this study: to include an overview and you may studies of your own prevalent quiddities and you can universal options that come with sites memes and also to data the latest contacts ranging from her or him. In particular, we wish to view the connection between your cohesiveness from meme family members (we.e., brand new the amount that period resemble both), the newest uniqueness of one’s universal attributes underpinning her or him, and also the concreteness of quiddities binding him or her. To address these types of needs, i working stuff research toward a wide test out-of meme era, after that extra statistical and you can community analysis. Throughout the finishing area, we mention how our very own analysis, based on the theoretic difference between quiddities and general features, sheds white for the dualities of “networked selves” constituting contemporary electronic societies.

Meme Family and Joining Quiddities

The definition of meme is actually created from the Richard Dawkins from the Selfish Gene ( 1976 ) to describe brief gadgets of society one to spread away from person to people because of the duplicating otherwise imitation. Considering it first conceptualization, memes tends to be conceptual facts, messages otherwise means. Memetic diffusion is based on a variety of repetition and type: As ability to duplicate memes in various contexts is actually simple to their achievement, re-manufacturing has to be versatile adequate to adapt to modifying affairs. So it condition from flux causes a tendency to explain memes merely retrospectively, after they has propagated. Ergo, including, the first five cards off Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony was in fact recognized as good meme only after they journeyed to a lot of components of the newest industry and was basically integrated inside a wide array of social items spanning ads, children’s programming, and you will video clips (Blackmore, 1999 ).