DTC: Homework #11 Memes
New ideas or “memes” are something that I inevitably run into every single day in real life and on the internet. Sometimes I specifically look through social media and the web in order to find ways to better my life or find new perspectives; however, rarely do these ideas I find stick with me and actually become true memes in my own head. For and idea to be meme it has to find a way to connect with people and give them a reason to keep it around and keep spreading it. Dan Dennett in “Dangerous Memes” explains the origin behind the philosophy of “memes” as viruses which spread from one brain to another throughout generations until ideas essentially become a new kind of gene. I see how this concept quickly spreads through the internet due to old memes which have been around for years now having access to new platforms and billions of people more readily being exposed to them.
For me an idea online which has more or less changed my day to day is the sudden influx and popularity of beauty gurus and social media influencers. This is not necessarily one idea, but it all works towards selling something. The package that they all try to push is that whatever they’re doing will make their audiences life better as well. It’s scary to think that younger, more vulnerable people, and even myself, hears the ideas of these online presences and cannot shake the notion of possibly obtaining a higher quality of life by buying into their sales pitch. Dennett is quoted by Abby Rabinowitz in “The Meme as Meme” saying, “I don’t know about you, but I’m not initially attracted by the idea of my brain as a sort of dung heap in which the larvae of other peoples’ ideas renew themselves.” I resonate with this and the idea that memes are a virus because sometimes the ideas we think we come up with on our own have really just been planted. I go through points where I find it quite scary that memes might secretly be controlling aspects of my life, and times where I don’t entirely mind it as these ideas are being spread for the purpose of making humans more well adjusted to evolutionary change.
That’s not saying that everything I’ve ever been told on the internet by social media “stars” has had a negative impact on my life. For example, they have plenty of content which I enjoy for entertainment or educational purposes. Matt Ridley in “When Ideas Have Sex” tells of the ways people can take memes or ideas and change them for the better or to better suit their purposes. Tips and tricks that I’ve learned from watching content created by influencers is already modified information which I then take and alter to work better for me personally. I’d like to think that by taking ideas and changing them, I’m not blindly following but adjusting to the changes in the world. While the spread of beauty gurus and influencers has become a way to influence mainstream media, it still holds value in that they provide what people want, and it makes people believe that their lives are getting better through joining this community online.