Using a biological metaphor to study memes is actually an ongoing debate. This strategy has been questioned by some researchers [1], while others (me included)

Using a biological metaphor to study memes is actually an ongoing debate. This strategy has been questioned by some researchers [1], while others (me included) found that it fits the observation quite nicely [2]. I haven't much more to say than "We just need more research". Sorry if it is not very enlightening :-) My rationale for this paper comes from the fact that the usage image macro templates is pretty stable, as observed with two years worth of data. I have previous work [3] where I use image macro memes and I show evidences of competition, collaboration, clustering tendencies (which could be interpreted as the creation of proto-organisms, more research needed). On top of those observations, I find that these image macros satisfy at least the weakest requirements to be considered a proper subject to be studied. Bear in mind the difference between what I call a "meme implementation" (the image with superimposed text, like in http://i.imgur.com/j9CTxt8.jpg http://i.imgur.com/j9CTxt8.jpg) with the "meme template" (in this case the collection of all Socially Awkward Penguins). The latter is the one that's relatively stable, the former is very dynamic. In a paper I just submitted I analyze meme usage in Reddit's post titles and I observe just that. So that's definitely going too low. [1] E.g. Weng, L., Flammini, A., Vespignani, A. & Menczer, F. Competition among memes in a world with limited attention. Scientific reports 2, 335; doi:10.1038/srep00335 (2013) [2] E.g. Adamic, L., Lento, T., Adar, E. & Ng, P. Information evolution in social networks. http://www.ladamic.com/papers/infoevolution/MemeEvolutionFacebook.pdf http://www.ladamic.com/papers/infoevolution/MemeEvolutionFac... [3] Michele Coscia: Competition and Success in the Meme Pool: A Case Study on Quickmeme.com. ICWSM 2013