Tuesday, August 22, 2006

What's In A Meme ?

A few weeks ago, Ken tagged me with a meme. What's a meme? From Wikipedia: The term "meme," coined in 1976 by Richard Dawkins, refers to a replicator of cultural information that one mind transmits (verbally or by demonstration) to another mind.

On the internet, specifically in blogs, a meme is a set of questions that one answers to give readers some insight into your personality, politics, beliefs, etc. The questions are answered, then the blogger "tags'' a fellow blogger and she, in turn, publishes her answers to the questions and "tags" yet another blogger and so on. It's almost like a chain letter, but there is no promise of riches or salvation attached.

Back to Ken's meme. Unfortunately, my answers would be quite similar to his, given the questions (see them here). Therefore, I shall shamelessy borrow a meme that I found circulating on ScienceBlogs, the Random Quote Meme, as follows:

The rules: "Go here and look through random quotes until you find 5 that you think relect who you are or what you believe." Here goes.
  1. You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces - just good food from fresh ingredients (Julia Child).
  2. Americans will put up with anything provided it doesn't block traffic (Dan Rather).
  3. The trouble with jogging is that the ice falls out of your glass (Martin Mull).
  4. I've been on a diet for two weeks and all I've lost is two weeks (Totie Fields).
  5. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world (J.R.R. Tolkien).
There you have it. It's fun looking around on the quote site, especially if you sort by subject. Now, whom shall I tag?

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the clear explanation of exactly what a "meme" is. I'd read references to them and not been really sure.

    ReplyDelete
  2. bc, you're welcome! Perhaps I should "tag" you next!

    ReplyDelete

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