I feel duped but also incredibly naive.
The Harlem shake was the fastest growing meme ever – and is now so over!!! It was a very catchy easy to replicate non offensive fun thing to replicate and many many many have been made including one I myself made with my class.

The reason it became viral was “nothing to do with community and everything to do with commerce” from Maker studio’s who identified it as a likely to ” go viral” and produced their own version and then used social media to spread the word about it.

The marketing companies are ahead of the game again, however being lead by marketing could have been why the idea rose and then died so quickly as it wasn’t naturally forming.

How does this fit with Richard Dawkins meme? Dawkins says “As in the case of genes, fecundity is much more important than longevity” so although it died out quickly the rate of reproduction was the key to the success of this meme.

You didn’t make the Harlem Shake go viral—corporations did – Quartz.

Dawkins, Richard (2006-03-16). The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary Edition–with a new Introduction by the Author (p. 194). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.

There are many references to the idea of the meme as a parasite, starting with the originator Richard Dawkins: “When you plant a fertile meme in my mind you literally parasitize my brain, turning it into a vehicle for the meme’s propagation in just the way that a virus may parasitize the genetic mechanism of a host cell.”

When we try to conceive of the idea of the space between – not the human, not the object but the space between the two, it is easy to consider this as a relationship one feeding of another but as Dennett defined it is not necesarily one leaching off another “although some of them are bound to be pernicious—parasites, not mutualists— others are profound enhancers of the native competences of the hosts they infect.”

So memes can be parasitic or enhancing, which seems to indicate that the meme has an identity or a role, rather than just an item acted upon.

The space appears to have a control

During the powercut at the Superbowl many advertisers took the opportunity to use twitter to seize the the moment and promote their product in association with the powercut – Tide tweeted, “We can’t get your #blackout, but we can get your stains out” and get free advertising in the most expensive advertising space / moment in the world – The Superbowl!

How Advertisers Made The Super Bowl Power Outage Work For Them – Forbes.

Marketing companies have been using this idea for years – free advertising off the back of a good idea that is talked about and spread from person to person through different media

This article looks at how ideas spread and the impact of “go viral” for marketing companies – it suggests that the spread of an idea isn’t like a virus – person to person, it is more like an infection like “polio” one person infecting many. But they do suggest a rate of 20 % growth “10 adoptees of a conventional marketing effort, another two people will adopt something organically.”

This article suggests that the spread of an idea isn’t like a virus – person to person, it is more like an infection like “polio” one person infecting many. But they do suggest a rate of 20 % growth “10 adoptees of a conventional marketing effort, another two people will adopt something organically.”

Is Viral Marketing a Myth? | MIT Sloan Management Review.

“What drives popular things online?”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Daniel Dennett: 'I don't like theory of mind' – interview | Science | guardian.co.uk.

It is interesting that the idea of Darwinian evolution of ideas was mentioned in 2012 by Jonnie Hughes ” divine sparks of inspiration, the accidental by-products of our weird ape brains” which he suggests then evolve separate from the humans and so one is looking for the space between the human beings the ideas bouncing off 7 million brains. Post Humanism

Meme theory: Do we come up with ideas or do they, in fact, control us? – Features – Gadgets & Tech – The Independent.

Susan Blackmore said “Everything changed in human evolution when imitation first appeared because imitation let loose a new replicator, the meme. Since that time, two replicators have been driving human evolution, not one. This is why humans have such big brains, and why they alone produce and understand grammatical language, sing, dance, wear clothes and have complex cumulative cultures. Unlike other brains, human brains had to solve the problem of choosing which memes to imitate. In other words they have been designed for selective imitation.”

Meme-Gene Coevolution.

How these selection processes and spaces in which ideas are bouncing, work in a digital environment is even more interesting due to the global factor adding different cultural perspectives or perhaps flattening culture across space?

The current “unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation.” as Dennett (1991) referred to them that are doing the rounds on the Internet are:

1. Recut movie trailers

Brokeback to the future

100. Recut Movie Trailers — The 100 Greatest Internet Memes of All Time | Complex.

2. planking

actually lost people jobs

Doctors and nurses suspended for playing Facebook 'Lying Down Game' | Metro News.

3. Blend it
people blending household objects and filming it

Click here to view the embedded video.

4. Box opening

Click here to view the embedded video.

5. LOL cats

The list goes on but today I read about the idea of crisis meme – like the joke that go around after a disaster or horrific incident, making light of the situation. There have been many,

I want to work on the idea of the individual wanting to be part of the masses, wanting to be part of a group. Looking at where the individual ends and the group begins. About how the individual is happy do something as part of a group or because other are doing it but wouldn’t normally do it And how / or if technology has exacerbate this.

This week along with working on the ethnography, I have been thinking a lot about different communities, their ethos, the idea of being part of a community and a communities culture.

Communities in the real world usually share a common interest and ideas and involve actual interactions, where people take on specific roles within the community

Online communities may not meet face to face but also have a shared interest, and different roles

It brought me round to thinking about how information and culture from these communities is shared with one another and I came across Richard Dawkins (1976) concept of the “meme” from the greek word “mimema” which means “something imitated” an idea or behaviour that is shared from one to another, with the rise of the Internet this sharing has become more prolific and people are more aware of ideas and activities through this sharing – note phildevine’s ethnography – the rise in popularity of fell running through its links and ways of passing on information through social networking

“Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches. Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperms or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation.”
― Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene

This has lead to the creation of new cultures – flash mobs and the current fashion for the Harlem Shake

On February 10, the upload rate of Harlem Shake videos reached 4,000 per day. As of February 11, about 12,000 versions of the popular Internet meme had been uploaded to YouTube, garnering over 44 million unique views. By February 15, about 40,000 Harlem Shake videos had been uploaded, totalling 175 million views.

I wish I could add the video of the one we did with the sixth formers but unfortunatley even though they share everything – I can’t share them!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I love the idea of people coming together to perform creative pieces in public places for the entertainment of others.

I love that it is for a brief moment in time – appears and disappears

I think it is representative of the fleeting nature of current popular culture, ephemeral, fast moving, creative and the bringing together of minds.