Memes In Society

People encounter memes in their everyday lives, whether it be on message boards, social media websites, or in conversations with friends and colleagues, memes are an inescapable aspect of American society. The first use of the term “meme” was by Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist and author, who first used the term to describe the spread of cultural information between individuals within a culture. Internet memes, in particular, are used to spread the culture of the internet among internet users. Websites such as Reddit and 4chan are amongst the most well-known websites responsible for the spread and creation of internet memes. Internet memes impact various aspects of American society, but have the most profound impact on both American politics and important social issues. Memes have been used in the presidential primary and the general election in order to persuade voters to vote for a particular presidential candidate. Memes have also been used to explain certain cultural phenomena or to explain how people feels about certain social issues. Memes are an extremely important aspect of American society and have numerous applications outside of being images which are shared online for comedic purposes. Evolutionary biologist and author Richard Dawkins first used the term “meme” in his 1976 book, The Selfish Gene, in order to describe a cultural unit which is spread from person to person. The term meme is a shortening of the ancient Greek word mimesis, which means to imitate or replicate. Dawkins chose to shorten mimesis to meme in order for it to sound akin to gene. Within his book, Dawkins purposefully creates an analogy between memes and genes to show the similarities between the two. Genes are passed on through sexual reproduction while memes are passed on through verbal exchanges and observation. Memes also change over time as they are passed on similarly to how genes can mutate as they are passed on from generation to generation. Another similarity between genes and memes is how only the successful are passed on while the unsuccessful are not carried on. The analogy between the two is integral to explaining the importance of memes in contemporary society. Dawkins could have never envisioned his term being used as the name for humorous pictures which are shared via the internet due to the fact that he created the term prior to the creation of the internet. …show more content…
The use of the term as the name for such pictures however, fits closely with Dawkins’ definition of a meme. Dawkins himself stated that the contemporary definition of a meme to describe humorous pictures has “… been appropriated for a subset…,” of a meme (Richard Dawkins on the internet, 2013). Memes have played and continue to play a profound role in contemporary society and have even been used in a wide variety of instances such as explaining people’s opinions on certain social issues as well as in major modern political events. Memes have been used during the primary process of the 2016 presidential race in order to persuade voters to vote for a particular presidential or to portrays the negative aspects of a candidate in a humorous way. For instance, a popular meme during the primary process was the “Bernie vs. Hilary” meme. The meme placed the two candidate’s stances on a wide variety of subject’s side by side in order to portray Bernie Sanders as the better presidential candidate of the two. Bernie Sanders’ stance on the topic …show more content…
In regards to the republic presidential candidate, Donald Trump, memes have been used to not only criticize his appearance, but to also criticize his beliefs. The various Donald Trump memes on the internet do not follow a shared format like those of the “Bernie vs. Hilary” memes, but do share a similar purpose, to criticize Donald Trump’s appearance, highly controversial statements, and beliefs. The main focus of many Donald Trump memes are his appearance. Trumps appearance, such as his hair and skin tone, have been the main focus of many Donald Trump memes. Other Donald Trump memes however, criticize his highly controversial options such as the belief that Mexico is sending criminals to the United States. Memes have also been used to criticize Hilary Clinton. There are memes which depict Hilary Clintons robotic demeanor as well as her poor attempts to connect with young