What is a Meme?

I'm willing to bet money that anyone who hasn't been living under a rock for the past fifteen years has come into contact with a meme at some point while surfing the web.  Yet, despite this fact, many people have no idea what the term "meme" means.  This is mostly because the term meme is fairly ambiguous and subject to interpretation.    There is no exact definition of a what a "meme" is and no way to clearly distinguish "memes" from "non-memes", but I'll do my best to at least provide a starting point for a definition from which we can build, at the very least, a workable understanding of the term. While its modern meaning, especially in terms of the internet is of the most importance for our purposes, the term meme has a very interesting history that is worth briefly summing up.

Originally the term meme comes from the Greek term "mimema" which means, "something imitated".  It came into use in the modern age when philosopher Richard Dawkins shortened the term to the word "meme" in his book The Selfish Gene in 1976.    Dawkins wanted to use the term meme to mirror the term gene.  While a gene refers to the mode by which physical traits are passed on from generation to generation, Dawkins observed that there was no comparable term to describe the passing of psychological traits and predispositions from generation to generation, or even from culture to culture.  Thus, Dawkins coined the term meme, to describe the transfer of ideas.

Today, the term meme still mirrors this root definition, but with a couple of important, yet subtle modifications.  For one, when used with respect to the internet, a meme is something that is viral, or widespread and well-known.  Thus, the first big split between Dawkins' definition and the current definition is based upon what function a meme serves.  Dawkins used the term meme to describe a mechanism by which an idea is passed on.  The modern usage of the word meme describes not the process that passes ideas on, but rather the idea or cultural phenomenon itself that is passed on.

Another modification that distinguishes the modern use of the term meme is that it is used to describe a cultural phenomenon that is widespread and transmits an easily understood idea.  A meme is also supposed to engage multiple cultural and personal backgrounds using an easily accessed theme in order to become successful.  Thus, a meme is not just an idea, but a specific kind of idea. Some examples of internet memes are things such as Lolcats (or  www.icanhascheezburger.com), Unforgivable (a viral video series on Youtube), or even the guy who cries, "Leave Britney alone!" on Youtube are all memes.   All of these examples are memes because they are simple, transmit a clear message, are widespread and most of them use themes or ideas that people from all walks of life can relate to.  Most memes use some aspect of pop culture in order to get their audience on the same page, so that they will accept the message the meme wants to put forward, because pop culture is easy for people to relate to. 
 
The term meme is often ambiguous and can refer to just about any internet phenomenon under the sun.  Hopefully this definition at least provides a useful starting point for conceptualizing the term meme, so that future discussions about memes can be easier to understand and hopefully can be entertaining as well.