> so the reference is not just to the show but the time we watched it and reacted to it together. But you're talking about actual friends and actually shared e

> so the reference is not just to the show but the time we watched it and reacted to it together. But you're talking about actual friends and actually shared experiences, and I think internet memes are something else. Often enough there is no "together" there at all: when someone reproduces an internet meme, they may mean something they can't or are too lazy to put into words, but it may get interpreted completely differently, or not at all (yet may still get "agreed to" for the sole reason of others also knowing the reference, or at least having it seen used a lot... as in "I don't understand this or know the origins, but I know it's 'official' and roughly know how to use it"). The point is, nobody cares enough to even follow up to check if the message was received, and generally many people just suddenly start saying things because everybody says them now, like a rash. Sometimes, the message isn't even fully formed in the mind of the sender though, and "oh, you know what I mean" actually means "don't make me reflect on what I'm trying to say here, and if it makes any sense". That's not particular to interwebs memes, but there it's considered almost uncouth to call nonsense out, being a spoil-sport, or proving lack of humor by not finding funny what has been decreed objectively funny by the invisible hand of the hive mind. > The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. -- George Bernard Shaw Picture me in front of a diagram: "People are so lonely, they mindlessly repeat things this stupid just to belong." Harsh and obviously not 100% true, but sometimes it's really just that. Even just YouTube is a giant abomination of a testimony to people talking and listening on auto-pilot, if you just care to cast a cold enough glance. I don't think language is solely a social phenomenon: the ability to reflect on it, and to use it precisely when thinking, when using it "between oneself and oneself", is just as important.