Hacker News Reader

'meme' was coined by Richard Dawkins in 'The Selfish Gene' in the 70's.

That's not what's being discussed here. We're talking about when the word 'meme' was repurposed to refer to "Internet trend".

But it is. Dawkins' meme was an idea that spreads person to person. So are the modern internet-spread image macro memes. The catching on and spreading is what makes it a meme and not just an image.

The confusion is that the latter meaning of "meme" has started drifting from "an image macro that spreads" to "an image macro".

I am aware of the origin of the word. I am distinguishing between the generic notion of a meme (which as you pointed out simply means "transmittable idea", which is an incredibly general concept) and the specific notion of an Internet Meme (and, as in OP, 'meme culture', which surely refers to Internet meme culture, and not the culture of transmittable ideas in general).

The later misuse of the word meme to refer only to image macros is also a separate shift.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com