This study utilizes a huge-scale decimal studies to disclose structural designs from internet memes, focusing on 2 forces you to bind her or him together with her: the fresh new quiddities of every meme nearest and dearest and also the simple popular features of the latest wide memetic sphere. Having fun with posts and network studies from 1013 meme times (including videos, images, and you can text message), i discuss memes’ common quiddity sizes and you will universal has actually, and also the ways in which they connect to both. The results show that (a) highest cohesiveness from meme families try regarding the a heightened uniqueness of the simple characteristics; and (b) the brand new concreteness out-of meme quiddities are of this cohesiveness and uniqueness. I discuss the effects of those results towards knowledge of internet memes and you may participatory society.
Websites memes, items of digital stuff that bequeath in the net in various iterations, enjoys has just started scholarly attract around the several sphere (Bennett & Segerberg, 2012 ; Milner, 2012 ; Shifman, 2013 ). While most knowledge capture a good qualitative way of examining the social concept of memes, throughout the following the article i use highest-scale decimal research to show some statutes and you may regularities underpinning that it fundamentally disorderly sphere. Memes are part of the brand new bland “web eating plan” of numerous Internet users, casually popping up in the check outs to help you programs particularly Youtube, Twitter, and you can Reddit. Yet the memetic vibrant are away from are trivial. They require disparate users globally to perform for the performance, undertaking and you will releasing content inside the multiple variations with each other divergent systems, while keeping the attraction and you will well-known features.
Household and you may Communities of Internet Memes: The partnership Between Cohesiveness, Uniqueness, and you can Quiddity Concreteness
Which paper aims at shedding light exactly how Internet memes will still be tied up along with her even with the dynamic and you can playful contexts of articulation. In earliest area i lay the background in regards to our expedition because of the reflecting the stress between the attributes of individual meme era, meme parents, as well as the whole memetic circle. We describe web sites memes once the groups of electronic textual devices written and you may written by of numerous players, which can be bound together from the two forces: (a) a contributed quiddity that’s particular to each and every family members, constituting their just one substance; and (b) so much more general qualities regarding setting, blogs, and you can position one draw with the exhibitions of your own “meme society.” Building on this subject abstract huge difference, i contained in the second area the new aims at the rear of this research: to include an overview and you will studies of your common quiddities and you will common features of internet memes in order to research brand new connectivity between her or him. In particular, we need to examine the connection between the cohesiveness out-of meme household (we.age., the latest the quantity to which hours are similar to each other), the newest individuality of general qualities underpinning him or her, in addition to concreteness of your own quiddities binding him or her. To handle this type of requirements, i working posts analysis for the a broad shot from meme hours, upcoming additional mathematical and you can community data. Regarding the concluding point, we talk about exactly how all of our analysis, according to the theoretical 
difference in quiddities and you will general properties, sheds white to the dualities out-of “networked selves” constituting modern electronic societies.
Meme Families and you may Binding Quiddities
The definition of meme try created because of the Richard Dawkins throughout the Selfish Gene ( 1976 ) to describe quick equipment regarding culture that pass on from individual individual because of the duplicating otherwise replica. Considering this first conceptualization, memes may be abstract facts, messages or methods. Memetic diffusion lies in a combination of repetition and adaptation: Due to the fact ability to duplicate memes in almost any contexts is actually important to their success, re-manufacturing must be versatile sufficient to adjust to changing affairs. This county away from flux causes a propensity to define memes only retrospectively, once they features propagated. Thus, for instance, the initial four notes off Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony was basically recognized as a meme merely when they journeyed to a lot of parts of new globe and you may have been included in many social artifacts comprising advertising, kid’s programming, and movies (Blackmore, 1999 ).
