You just lost the game. If this phrase resonated or even angered you, you’re already familiar with the life cycle of memes. How these memes spread, however, is rapidly changing.
The word “meme” is used flippantly to describe anything eliciting a joyous reaction from a varying group of people. It can be an image shared between colleagues, or an internet-phenomena that can shift modern culture.
Memes are typically created to commentate on the current social, political and economic climate of the world. However, this was not always the case.
The Dancing Baby — a gif/image of an animated dancing baby — is widely known as the first viral internet meme. There was no intention for this image to go viral. According to CNN, the gif was “actually a sample file for a software company called AutoDesk, who used such files to show customers the capabilities of its animation plug-in.”
The now iconic image first hit the internet in 1996 and spread through chat rooms and email chains. Even now, the image is used to reference pop culture's past and is recognizable to people born after its creation. Yet, the word “meme” was first defined twenty years earlier, in 1976, by Richard Dawkins.
Dawkins defined memes as “a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation,” in his book “The Selfish Gene.” The life cycle of memes are similar to the life cycle of parasites, according to Dawkins. A host interprets a meme, becomes “infected” by it and then spreads the meme to new hosts, who spread it by turn.
In 1976, this process was much slower than we know it today. Current technology allows for rapid spread of information, including the written jokes and photo edits we know as memes.
The rapid spread of information means memes can become completely unrecognizable to outsiders in the span of a week, but still carry meaning for its “hosts.” For example, long-time internet users can recognize the “Loss” meme only by a short series of lines.
Today, memes typically originate from news media and spread to the rest of the internet through blogs, according to “Meme-tracking and the Dynamics of the News Cycle.” Only about 3.5% of memes, considered “quoted phrases” in this study, originate on blogs before appearing in news media. The transition takes about 2.5 hours to occur.
The same study found blogs extend the life of memes. While news media has a drop-and-go approach, bloggers adopt phrases and continue to use them for a longer period of time. This process is compared to a “heartbeat,” a much kinder comparison than a parasite, and reflects the constantly evolving news cycle.
Though this study was done in 2009, its findings hold value in observations of internet culture. Nowadays, instead of blogs, memes are picked up by users on social media sites such as TikTok, Instagram and X.
However, memes can certainly fall out of popularity. One major cause of meme death is the dreaded use by a brand or corporation to advertise its products. However, truly viral memes never leave public consciousness.
Once viral moments always have a chance to be resurrected when least expected. Recently, a 2017 video of “Fast & Furious” (2009) actor Tyrese Gibson crying “my Shayla” resurfaced on TikTok as a viral audio. Despite the heartbreaking origins of this audio, many TikTok users apply it to “humorous or nostalgic situations,” according to The Express Tribune.
Memes have been around since humans began using symbolic systems of communication. Yet, our modern reliance on rapid communication and constant stimulation has accelerated their life cycle.
While we may remember the Dancing Baby of 1996, will we remember today’s viral moments twenty years from now? Or are there too many parasites and not enough hosts?
