WORKING TOWARDS A COMPLETE THEORY OF MEME RELATIVITY
A worthwhile read. The author of this piece claims that the average life of a meme is around 4.017 months. The methodology is well spelled out, though any number of critiques may be made as to the sample size and the forums used to track a meme’s lifespan. For example, when memes enter their mainstream stage, there often appear accounts, pages, etc that are devoted to religiously propagating and mutating the meme to keep it relevant even as its original form/content bleeds away from public consciousness.
Despite this, the report is a solid one, though more research is indeed needed. While I’d love to do it myself, I suppose I’ll have to place it on the shelf with all the other meme related projects I’d like to pursue, such as “Are Memes the New Civil Society?” and “Governance by Memes.”
