The surprising academic origins of memes

Internet memes are units of popular culture that are shared, imitated, and changed by users.

The first meme on the internet was the sideways 'smiley' :-) , created in 1982. The practice of using punctuation markers to show emotion spread quickly and later other expressions, such as :-( and ;-) were added.
The first example of digital viral content is the Hampster Dance meme - rows of dancing hamster GIFs - created by an art student in 1998.

New memes emerged that included animals with human characteristics, such as Advice Dog and Grumpy Cat.

Later in the naughties, memes began to feature celebrities and ordinary people, like Charlie Bit My Finger and Leave Britney Alone. These memes came from viral videos or a media event.

Memes are also used to promote certain political ideas or ideologies.

Websites such as Meme Generator can use the humor of memes to try and destroy the arguments of rival political movements.