Memes Shaping the Blogosphere :: Memetics Science Genes Brain Essays

Memes Shaping the BlogosphereThe lore of memetics the scientific and systematic study of memes and their extension service is not quite considered a science yet. People will squeal that memes are a key constituent in cultural phylo comp anentsis, barely they are besides difficult to track, too unpredictable to study closely. Unless we someday discover a striking identicalness between header structures storing the comparable breeding, allowing us to identify memes syntactically (Dennett 354), it would wait that there is little swear for a science of memetics. How can we look and apply memetics to civilization if we cannot sequestrate and investigate the memes themselves, and their behaviors and effects? While memes head and influence through and through culture at large is perhaps hopeless to analyze using a precise methodology, memes virus-like spread on the profit most notably end-to-end the so-called blogosphere is easier to follow. Consequently, it is also mu ch easier to play up how memes keep directed the evolution of the blogosphere, and, indeed, of blogging and internet itself. Richard Dawkins, who is credited with coining the term meme, defines it as ...a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation... Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene syndicate by leaping from personify to body via sperm 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 (Dennett 344-5).Since the blogosphere can be outlined as the internet piazza populated by weblogs, memes travel through it not from brain to brain, scarcely from page to page, leaving a footstep that can be monitored and analyzed. Memes have been an important part of the blogging world since at least 2001, when Best Meme offset appeared as a category in The Bloggies, the annual Oscars of weblogging. The winner in the Best Meme category that year was A Day Without Weblog s, which suggested that each celestial latitude 1st, people use their weblogs to link to information and resources about AIDS, in reminiscence of those who had died. A Day Without Weblogs had in item begun with only fifty blogs in 1999, but by 2001, over 1,000 webloggers participated (Link and Think, 2003). The supremacy of A Day Without Weblogs was one of the first demonstrations of the power and reach of the blogging community. The success of the project helped bring important attention to a serious issue, and mobilized more casual web surfers to present time and money to the cause.Memes Shaping the Blogosphere Memetics information Genes Brain EssaysMemes Shaping the BlogosphereThe science of memetics the scientific and systematic study of memes and their propagation is not quite considered a science yet. People will concede that memes are a key factor in cultural evolution, but they are too difficult to track, too unpredictable to study closely. Unless we someday dis cover a striking identity between brain structures storing the same information, allowing us to identify memes syntactically (Dennett 354), it would seem that there is little hope for a science of memetics. How can we explore and apply memetics to culture if we cannot isolate and investigate the memes themselves, and their behaviors and effects? While memes motion and influence through culture at large is perhaps impossible to analyze using a precise methodology, memes virus-like spread on the internet most notably throughout the so-called blogosphere is easier to follow. Consequently, it is also much easier to highlight how memes have directed the evolution of the blogosphere, and, indeed, of blogging and internet itself. Richard Dawkins, who is credited with coining the term meme, defines it as ...a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation... Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperm or eggs, so memes propagate themse lves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation (Dennett 344-5).Since the blogosphere can be defined as the internet space populated by weblogs, memes travel through it not from brain to brain, but from page to page, leaving a trail that can be monitored and analyzed. Memes have been an important part of the blogging world since at least 2001, when Best Meme first appeared as a category in The Bloggies, the annual Oscars of weblogging. The winner in the Best Meme category that year was A Day Without Weblogs, which suggested that each December 1st, people use their weblogs to link to information and resources about AIDS, in memory of those who had died. A Day Without Weblogs had in fact begun with only fifty blogs in 1999, but by 2001, over 1,000 webloggers participated (Link and Think, 2003). The success of A Day Without Weblogs was one of the first demonstrations of the power and reach of the blogging community. The success of the project helped bring crucial attention to a serious issue, and mobilized many casual web surfers to donate time and money to the cause.