Meme

<p><span>Remember that summer when the internet was one Distracted Boyfriend after another—that flannel-shirted dude rubbernecking at a passing woman, while his girlfriend glares at him? Everyone had their own take—the Boyfriend was you, staring directly at a solar eclipse, ignoring science. The Boyfriend was youth, seduced by socialism, spurning capitalism. The Boyfriend could be anyone you wanted him to be.   </span></p> <p><span>We think of memes as a uniquely internet phenomenon. But the word meme originally had nothing to do with the internet. It came from an evolutionary biologist who noticed that genes weren’t the only thing that spread, mutated, and evolved.</span></p> <p><span>Want to stay up to speed with all thing <em>Science Diction? </em><a href="http://eepurl.com/dysvyn" target="_blank">Sign up for our newsletter.</a></span></p> <h2><span>Guest: </span></h2> <p><span><a href="https://gretchenmcculloch.com/">Gretchen McCulloch</a><span> is an internet linguist. For some fun, check out her book, </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0735210934/sciencefriday/"><em><span>Because Internet</span></em></a><span>, and her podcast </span><a href="https://lingthusiasm.com/"><em><span>Lingthusiasm.</span></em></a><span> She’s also </span><a href="https://www.sciencefriday.com/person/gretchen-mcculloch/"><span>appeared </span></a><span>on </span><em><span>Science Friday.</span></em></span></p> <h2><span><span>Footnotes And Further Reading: </span></span></h2> <p>For an academic take on memes, read <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/memes-digital-culture"><em><span>Memes in Digital Culture</span></em></a> <span>by Limor Shifman.</span></p> <p>Read <a href="https://naturwissenschaftscafe.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/richard_dawkins_the_selfish_gene.pdf"><em>The Selfish Gene</em></a><span> by Richard Dawkins.</span></p> <p>Check out the first time the word <em><span>meme</span></em><span> appeared in an internet context, in Mike Godwin’s 1994 </span><em><span>Wired</span></em><span> article cal