Pass it On - it can be a Meme!

[tzikeh]

Memes were not born on Livejournal, nor are they indigenous to fandom.

Memes are the basic building blocks of our minds and culture, in the same way that genes are the basic building blocks of biological life.

"Meme" rhymes with "dream" - it is not pronounced "mimi".

Memetics is a legitimate study, and has been for close to 30 years.

For further information:

http://www.memecentral.com/
http://users.lycaeum.org/~sputnik/Memetics/
http://jom-emit.cfpm.org/

Comments

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

The memes cited here don't appear to have much to do with the LJ-use of "meme," though, which as far as I can tell is synonymous with "opinion questionnaire."

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

But the questionnaires are memes, in that they are passed from person to person and "infect" the community. And not all of what is labelled "meme" in lj is necessarily questionnaire.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Granted, it's a loose interpretation of the word. {g} But I keep seeing people on lj saying that it means "me! me!". I wanted to point out that well, no, that's not where it came from.

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

As far as the "me! me!" thing goes, I'm with you. ;)

[amilyn.livejournal.com]

Very interesting! I had no idea. Learn something new...

(Although I do contend that many of the memes are for each person to tell about "me! me!". *grin*)

[corinna-5.livejournal.com]

I think the idea of the meme is a ridiculous pseudo-scientific way of talking about culture without having to bother to, you know, learn about culture. Social Darwinian nonsense.

That having been said, yes, it's worth pointing out that the LJ use of it has nothing to do with the original use, but I like it better, since "me! me!" actually nicely describes what those quizzes are, and it's a funny-cause-it's-true sort of reappropriation of the word.

[destina.livejournal.com]

"Meme" rhymes with "dream" - it is not pronounced "mimi".

The me!me! thing was a visual joke, advanced by those of us who simply can't resist the convergence of the grouped letters in the word and the purpose of the meme itself. It was meant to be funny, not start someone down the road of mispronunciation. *g* You don't think anyone actually thinks it's pronounced that way, do you?? I hope not.

[elke-tanzer.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I am convinced that someone is mispronouncing it just that way. :-P

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I've heard several people who learned it from fandom on livejournal pronounce it that way. Hence the post. ;)

[undeadjournal.livejournal.com]

Now that you've cleared that up, admirably, can you figure out the origin of, or correct the use of "gack" to mean "take without permission"?

Gank is the word they're looking for.

Gack is a kind of onomatopoeic expression of disgust and by extension a noun meaning the substance or object that inspires it.

I've done a lot of searching of online dictionaries of slang, and those are the only senses I can find, although "gank" can also mean "to rip off (a person)" in a drug deal or fake drugs.

I think this is just another one of those mishearings/mistypings that's spread through LJs.