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I'm here for memes, not snappy Xitter, 4Chan, reddit or similarly sourced screenshots of texts
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this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2025
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I didn't make this meme.
Then let me put it this way:
OP didn't say that memes can't be textual in nature, OP complains about snappy Twitter, 4Chan, Reddit (idk about this one? Reddit does have memes in some subs) or similarly sourced screenshots of texts.
Such posts, while possibly humorous, and occasionally a bit funny, are not spread rapidly by Internet users, and rarely posted with any variation.
Example 1 - this is a meme:
"Nanomachines, son!"
Example 2 - this is not a meme:
I mean, if the screenshot has been shared widely enough, it should be considered a meme by definition.
If the screenshot has been shared widely enough by many different people, yes, it should be considered a meme by definition.
"By many different people" isnt part of either of the above definitions. Also, whats "many?" Whats "different" mean in this context? What is the threshold for a meme to meme? 10 people? 100? 1000?
Richard dawkins coined the term in 1976 and defined it as such:
Seems like a screenshot of text seen by hundred/thousands/millions fits that defention to me.
Example 2 is a meme, no doubt about it.
If you go any deeper than the surface-level Google definition (that you are pedantically picking apart), then you will find literally any idea or unit of culture is a meme.
Read the last chapter of Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene. Actually please read the whole book, it's a masterpiece of science popularization. Or read Susan Blackmore's The Meme Machine, it explains the concept of memes and how they evolve in further detail.
When everything is a meme, nothing is. That is why often there is a distinction made between the Richarf Dawkins type of meme and the modern internet meme.
Wrong
“When everything is made of genes, nothing is”
This is just an assertion, and a false one too.
Everything is a meme, and they behave exactly like genes. They replicate themselves, perfectly or imperfectly, and are then subject to competition for users’ attention which will affect their future replication.
Another meme is attempting to outcompete the screenshot genus of memes, by using you as a propagation tool: the “screenshots of text are not memes” meme.
Edit: downvote me if you want but you can’t deny the facts. The idea I expressed in this comment was also a meme whose chances of propagation were diminished from your downvote.
This is just a silly over-intellectualization of a weird word you want to mean "thing, but fancier". I agree with the person you're replying to. If everything is a meme then the term is meaningless.
Alright man. Let’s say, hypothetically, that I tell you “everything in the universe is matter”
Then I proceed to tell you what matter is, that it’s made of protons, electrons, and neutrons, which are further comprised of subatomic particles.
Then I explain how this theoretical approach is applicable to anything and everything and how incredibly useful it is to think of stuff in this way. And how its basic composition allows for many different configurations and interactions of matter. Incredibly hot plasma caused by nuclear fusion in stars. The insane density of neutron stars. And how this is the most correct model we have to date.
Now you may respond in one of a few ways:
You can say “huh, that’s really neat” and move on. Or maybe learn more about it.
Or you can say “that’s really cool, but I only care about the stuff that we can see on earth” which is totally reasonable and which is what many people are doing in this thread.
You could also say “that’s dumb, only the stuff we can see on earth should be called matter” which is similar to the preceding response, but is not reasonable at all and is what OP is doing.
Or you could say “that’s dumb, if everything is matter then the term is meaningless” which is just an arbitrary semantic application of a phrase which, for some reason, you and OP are treating as a universal maxim and completely leaving out all context and nuance pertaining to the situation. Syndrome can say “when everyone’s super, no one will be” in the Incredibles because that is a difference of degree, while this is a categorical difference.
I explained that a meme is any piece of information that can be transmitted with or without modification, because that is the definition. If you want to stop there and say that “if everything is a meme, then nothing is” that’s your prerogative. But I am not over-intellectualizing, you are under-intellectualizing.
That is the working definition we have and it’s useful because all the rules of evolution that apply to genes also apply to memes, and so it tells us a lot about how humans interact with and exchange information. It would not work if the definition were any different. If you want to change the definition to eliminate things you don’t like, or that don’t fit within a specific community, I guarantee you will leave out things that you would say are memes unintentionally.
If you don’t want lazy text screenshots in a meme community, that’s fine. But that does not mean they are not memes.
That's just a bad analogy but alright 👍
I don’t see how but go off I guess
By your thinking, the letter A on a transparent background is a "meme"
… it is.
By the most useless definition of the word I guess, but I don't see how it is supposed to be meaningful to anyone but a linguist with that specific opinion.
I mean the letter A itself is a meme, transparent background or not.
You can even trace its evolution back thousands of years.
I realize that. But applying the term there is basically just using it as a glorified version of "thing" and that's not at all how most people use that term.
Yeah
To be fair,
If people post it around, it is.
Hahaha, looks like we're back to arguing about the old No True Memesmen falacy....
Screenshots of text that you don't like aren't memes because of reasons
Most of the shit on here hasn't been shared widely or rapidly. They're at best aspiring memes.
The community should be renamed non-memes. If not, then that community should be created & every non-meme here cross-posted there.
Haters gonna hate, but you deserve this.
spoiler
The hidden parts don't matter, the part you can see is the part that says OP is wrong and nothing anywhere in the rest of the definition changes that