Memes refer to a piece of information or idea that spreads rapidly by means of contact from one person to another person. In the modern world, the term meme is generally used in relation to interesting photos, videos, or ideas that spread rapidly over the internet. Have a look at some of the famous memes to get an idea of what they are. These memes were based on a dialog of famous movie actor Vin Diesel. The various ways in which different people have interpreted and presented the dialog is really remarkable and interesting as well.
The term meme was first used by the eminent biologist Richard Dawkins in 1974 in his book “The Selfish Gene.” In his book, he used the term meme to refer to the nature of genes being a self-replicating unit of information. The genes present in our DNA are the primary unit responsible for the evolution of organisms. And that happens only because genes replicate very fast and the information contained in them spreads very rapidly from organism to organism and from generation to generation.
The present-day memes on the internet are analogous to the genes in our DNA if we look at them from the point of replication. Just like genes, these internet memes also spread very fast through the internet. And within a very short span of time, a piece of information can reach almost all the people using the internet around the world. Because these interesting photos, videos, and other ideas on the internet have the capability to replicate and spread very fast just like a gene, they are also called memes.
