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This is where internet memes come from
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Origin of memes
The word meme was coined by the biologist Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book, The Selfish Gene. He defined it as ideas that could replicate, evolve, and enter popular culture in a process similar to ...
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Attention hacking
Several online communities focus on creating and spreading memes, so the idea becomes viral. These communities have become very influential.
Little is understood about the way memes spread ...
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Generating memes
Researchers have gained some understanding of why some memes spread widely, while others quickly die away.
One component is to ensure new offspring are continuously produced. It suggests tha...
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SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
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Memes
The content shared online is always changing because of the creativity of users who remix, parody, or caption popular images or videos, to create memes.
Memes may seem basic, but from a linguistic point of view, they're remarkably sophisticated, expressing and sharing ideas and opinions.
Origins of memes
Memes have their origins in the world of academia. Richard Dawkins coined the term 'meme' in his 1976 book, The Selfish Gene. Dawkins describes a meme as "a unit of cultural transmission or imitation."
The word comes from the Greek 'mimema', meaning imitated.
Going viral
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.
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Our Delusions
Most people are misleading themselves all the time. Our biases, our ego and our mental traps have held us captive, unable to endorse or support anything that shakes our cage. We believe we are smart, good looking, and can do no wrong.
The truth is that our mind’s information-gathering, reasoning and recollections are inherently biased.
Reality Distortion
Most of us have evolved to overestimate our positive qualities, as it feels good. This ‘self-enhancement’ is done with the right intentions but is nothing more than a reality distortion in our minds.
Self-Deceptions
We all form impressions about ourselves, and once those impressions have been formed, they stick. It is as if once they are frozen in our minds, having become a part of us, and we don’t want to lose them, even if they are proven to be false.
Example: A study on high school boys showed that having overconfidence (or self-deception) in one’s abilities (athletic or academic) made them popular, even if they weren't really better in any of those abilities.
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Key Ideas
Have a focus
Don't try to be everything to everyone. Decide what your key message is and stick to it.
Keeping your message focused for your target demographic will make it that much easier to both create content around your personal brand and have others define you.
Be authentic
It's the easy way to have an original personal brand. Pople can see right through a dishonest act and will call you out for it.
It will also make it much easier to manage your personal brand on a daily basis.
Tell a story
If your personal brand isn’t telling a story, you’ve already lost half of your potential audience.
The most effective personal branding strategy these days is to build a true narrative, a story around your brand that your audience can engage with.