The term meme gets bandied about (overused?) in the blogosphere and, like Richard Dawkins suggested, has mutated in that environment. In the blogosphere, the term refers to an idea that spreads from blog to blog. Memes generally propagate in the blogosphere in two ways: bloggers posting on the same topic on a particular day (as I have been doing) or “tagging” another blogger, usually with a list of questions or topics the tagged person should address.
I’m sure it is just coincidence, but just days after I started the book memes here, John Scalzi reposted the book reading meme he created. Here it is in all its glory:
1. Open the book you’re currently reading to page 133.
2. Read the fourth line on the page.
3. Put the book back where it had been resting.
4. Tell no one of what it was you just did.
5. Think of five friends to tag with this meme.
6. Do not actually tag them. They are busy and have lives.
7. Go about your life as if nothing has happened.
8. Carry the secret of this meme to your grave.
Sorry, John, I violated step 8 and, therefore, have spread this meme even more. But my views are mostly like his when it comes to the tagging memes and he just summarizes things so nicely. He hasn’t, though, dissuaded me from continuing the weekly themed meme posts — yet.
When you plant a fertile meme in my mind you literally parasitize my brain[.]
Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene
I got a kick out of this. I may just ‘borrow’ it, with due credit of course.