4 ms·

It really bothers me that the word "meme" has become a synonym for these Advice Animal style images.

by Hovertruck 13y ago

heartbreak 13y ago
You mean "image macros"
- kmfrk 13y ago
  You mean "demotivational posters". Words change. "LOL" means something different than it used to. Such is the fluidity of language and the web.
  - mehrzad 13y ago
    But they're not demotivationals.
  - MostAwesomeDude 13y ago
    Image macros come from Japanese message boards; they are not really related to the faux motivational posters that are commonly known as "demotivationals".
    - astrange 13y ago
      Image macros came from SomethingAwful, although even then it was only a brief period where they were actual "macros". Japanese sites don't even let you embed images. Everyone uses ASCII art (actually SJIS of course).
- pyre 13y ago
  They were originally "image macros," but some image macros became memes unto themselves. Eventually people started referring to image macros as memes. Advice Animals started somewhere in the middle of all of this. Originally image macros didn't share a common picture, but a common phrase with a funny picture that was related or a specific image/phrase combination (e.g. "do not want", "no u", "get in the soup"[1]). [1] http://endlesspicdump.com/original/shut%20the%20hell%20up%20and%20get%20in%20the%20soup.gif http://endlesspicdump.com/original/shut%20the%20hell%20up%20...
tome 13y ago
That in itself is an example of the spread of a meme.
bradleyland 13y ago
Interestingly, this is one of the few news outlets that correctly identified them as "image macros". Pull quote: His history on Reddit amounted to little more than link submissions to a relatively new site called Quickmeme, where users type bold-faced captions on popular memes like Scumbag Steve and Success Kid. These are known as image macros.
scrumper 13y ago
Dawkins's concept of memes provides an interesting way to look at the nature of humanity, society, and civilizations. It's a simple concept, too: something graspable by any reasonably observant person. It's perhaps a little sad that something which represents naught but a shadow of the original idea has overtaken it in such a popular forum. Is it possible that the meme of Dawkins's "meme" could itself die out, killed off by a parasitic invasive species that claimed its very name? Without that name, how do we talk about them? Or, is the spread of the name 'meme' to mean 'image macros' instead indicative of the power of Dawkins's original idea? Here we are, looking at a community of a million teenagers, most of them utterly uninterested in thinking about the spread of ideas, taking a name from science and applying it to their own culture. The kids aren't even using the word incorrectly: image macros are a meme; individual examples are memes themselves, competing, reproducing, thriving, dying. Fun to think about.
- qwertzlcoatl 13y ago
  Richard Dawkins laid down his own little twist on memes some weeks ago : http://youtu.be/GFn-ixX9edg?t=4m55s http://youtu.be/GFn-ixX9edg?t=4m55s Warning: Weirdness
dnautics 13y ago
you're complaining that it has evolved out of its initial neologism?
- Hovertruck 13y ago
  I'd call this the opposite. It's a devolution, equivalent to if we changed the meaning of the word soda to only apply to cola.
  - dnautics 13y ago
    So, specialization, like how certain finches can now only eat nuts instead of nectar.
  - dnautics 13y ago
    like how some finches can only eat nectar, others can only eat nuts.
jere 13y ago
Polysemy isn't something to get upset about. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyseme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyseme Anyway, I'd say many people still understand the original meaning and distinguish between the two given enough context.

It really bothers me that the word "meme" has become a synonym for these Advice Animal style images.

heartbreak 13y ago

You mean "image macros"

kmfrk 13y ago
You mean "demotivational posters". Words change. "LOL" means something different than it used to. Such is the fluidity of language and the web.
- mehrzad 13y ago
  But they're not demotivationals.
- MostAwesomeDude 13y ago
  Image macros come from Japanese message boards; they are not really related to the faux motivational posters that are commonly known as "demotivationals".
  - astrange 13y ago
    Image macros came from SomethingAwful, although even then it was only a brief period where they were actual "macros". Japanese sites don't even let you embed images. Everyone uses ASCII art (actually SJIS of course).
pyre 13y ago
They were originally "image macros," but some image macros became memes unto themselves. Eventually people started referring to image macros as memes. Advice Animals started somewhere in the middle of all of this. Originally image macros didn't share a common picture, but a common phrase with a funny picture that was related or a specific image/phrase combination (e.g. "do not want", "no u", "get in the soup"[1]). [1] http://endlesspicdump.com/original/shut%20the%20hell%20up%20and%20get%20in%20the%20soup.gif http://endlesspicdump.com/original/shut%20the%20hell%20up%20...

tome 13y ago

That in itself is an example of the spread of a meme.

bradleyland 13y ago

Interestingly, this is one of the few news outlets that correctly identified them as "image macros". Pull quote: His history on Reddit amounted to little more than link submissions to a relatively new site called Quickmeme, where users type bold-faced captions on popular memes like Scumbag Steve and Success Kid. These are known as image macros.

scrumper 13y ago

Dawkins's concept of memes provides an interesting way to look at the nature of humanity, society, and civilizations. It's a simple concept, too: something graspable by any reasonably observant person. It's perhaps a little sad that something which represents naught but a shadow of the original idea has overtaken it in such a popular forum. Is it possible that the meme of Dawkins's "meme" could itself die out, killed off by a parasitic invasive species that claimed its very name? Without that name, how do we talk about them? Or, is the spread of the name 'meme' to mean 'image macros' instead indicative of the power of Dawkins's original idea? Here we are, looking at a community of a million teenagers, most of them utterly uninterested in thinking about the spread of ideas, taking a name from science and applying it to their own culture. The kids aren't even using the word incorrectly: image macros are a meme; individual examples are memes themselves, competing, reproducing, thriving, dying. Fun to think about.

qwertzlcoatl 13y ago
Richard Dawkins laid down his own little twist on memes some weeks ago : http://youtu.be/GFn-ixX9edg?t=4m55s http://youtu.be/GFn-ixX9edg?t=4m55s Warning: Weirdness

dnautics 13y ago

you're complaining that it has evolved out of its initial neologism?

Hovertruck 13y ago
I'd call this the opposite. It's a devolution, equivalent to if we changed the meaning of the word soda to only apply to cola.
- dnautics 13y ago
  So, specialization, like how certain finches can now only eat nuts instead of nectar.
- dnautics 13y ago
  like how some finches can only eat nectar, others can only eat nuts.

jere 13y ago

Polysemy isn't something to get upset about. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyseme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyseme Anyway, I'd say many people still understand the original meaning and distinguish between the two given enough context.