Introduction: Why Memes?

First, let’s define a meme. According to Merriam-Webster, a meme is “an amusing or interesting item (such as a captioned picture or video) or genre of items that is spread widely online especially through social media.” The Washington Post defines memes as “any pieces of cultural information that spread among groups by imitation, changing bit by bit along the way.” This a new digital medium of communication occurs through deliberate changes of the source material and subsequent iterations through creative means. Although memes are diverse and vary in their purposes and formats, they all function as important units of information shared virulently online. Memes are so ubiquitous today that they are embedded into our “IRL world” as much as other parts of the online reality, such as instant messaging. They form and sustain relationships and communities. They realize new business ventures and marketing schemes. They disrupt the political sphere as a new form of participatory political discourse. They synergistically grow with the entertainment industry. If we did not have memes come with the Triple Revolution, the global society of today would not be the same. Given how ingrained memes are in the global culture, they are a disruptive medium worth critiquing.

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