For a while now the Sightline team have been posting memes that we enjoy or feel have some relevance to the community at Bethany. This is a good and healthy thing that lends a casual quality to our page that we more or less miss without. As fun as memes are and for as often as they change there is still quite a bit of history to these topical jokes we have come to know and love.
The term “meme” was coined in 1976 by Richerd Dawkins in his book, “The Selfish Gene,” as an attempt to explain how cultural information spreads. A meme is essentially a lens we use that changes our perception of the world, a lens that changes as soon as someone hands us a new one. An example of this is the Patriot act, airport security is more strict because of a world event that changed our view, no one said all memes had to be fun. In 1993, the concept of an internet meme was first discussed by Mike Godwin in an issue of WIRED. Dawkins describes an internet meme as being a way we look at the world changed by creativity. Something that these internet memes had that regular memes did not was an influence from news and media that then spirals off into other tangents. were as normal memes were only influenced by world events.
The memes we share are humorous and meant to entertain in a non-intrusive way but that isn’t always the case with memes. Because of their nature, they form the creator’s opinions and feelings leading to a way to express wants and frustrations through short comedy and visuals.
Memes have been around for a long time, whether it be on the internet or in real life, but with a little bit of history, we can all appreciate them a little more.