• BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    23
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    6 months ago

    Memes are a form of cultural expression, spread from one person to another. This post is a meme. It’s not humorous but it is a meme

    • Fluffy_Ruffs@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      33
      ·
      6 months ago

      No, memes follow or aim to create a template / macro. This is just a snapshot of a Twitter post.

      • BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        21
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        6 months ago

        Meme - In popular language, a meme may refer to an Internet meme, typically an image, that is remixed, copied, and circulated in a shared cultural experience online.

        This post is a meme. It is an image that is circulated in a shared cultural experience (this post and it’s many reposts)

        • hemmes@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          6 months ago

          Maybe - but “memes” like this don’t have the remix portion. It doesn’t even really have the copy portion, because this is more like a repost - the OP didn’t copy this tweet to make a similar but different point, they’re just sharing a tweet on this Lemmy community. So by this definition, it’s not really a meme.

          If this were a meme, I’d be able to take it, change some key words while maintaining the general cadence, and a similar outcome with an alternate context. You can’t really do that with this screenshot of a tweet.

          • Vespair@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            7
            ·
            edit-2
            6 months ago

            The image isn’t the meme here. What is memetic is the idea of withholding previously innocuous-seeming information from healthcare professionals in the interest of self-preservation.

            And if you ask what’s memetic about that, I will in turn ask you what coordinated and intentional effort exists to push this concept of information withholding for safety onto American women? And when you then come back after having not found any coordinated and intentional effort, I will simply ask you then how you think this idea has spread to the point of being so easily recognizable and identifiable? Memetic discourse.

            • hemmes@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              6 months ago

              Yeah, I don’t disagree with you. I guess I just resonate more with different meme styles then OP.

          • BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            6 months ago

            I mean, you could interpret remix in a few ways. Editing this specific image? Perhaps it hasn’t been done but that doesn’t mean it can’t be. If we’re considering the core message of the post to be the meme, then I would say it has been remixed. This isn’t the first post I’ve seen conveying this sentiment in similar (but distinct) wording. Theres a reasonable basis for this interpretation in my opinion.

            Just because you and I lack the imagination and possess enough empathy to not edit this meme doesn’t mean there aren’t other people out there who can/have

      • Glytch@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        16
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        6 months ago

        Nope! A meme is an idea that passes from person to person and evolves as it does. Image macros are simply one form of meme.

        • Fluffy_Ruffs@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          16
          ·
          6 months ago

          The image in the OP, nor the text within it, will be passed from person to person nor will it become the basis for parody. There has to be some criteria for a meme community to follow and any original piece of text will qualify unless there’s some amount of circulation associated with it. Otherwise what separates this community from lemmy.world/c/politics ?

      • Vespair@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        6 months ago

        You are describing image macros, which are only one single type of meme, not the only thing that can be memetic. Even philosophical concepts can be spread memetically.

        I’m sorry, you simply have a misconception about what the definition of a meme is.