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Indeed, “meme” is a stupid name for what was completely understandable when simply called an “idea”. The analogy of ideas to genetics is not particularly insightful, and at this point quite worn through.

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People congratulate themselves when they have an idea. A group doesn't get an idea. You get a meme from someone else, and it seems to survive on its own. Not all ideas are memes, and not all memes are ideas.

But finding a meme these days is like mentioning the long tail. It seems a little antiquated and cutesy.

Not all memes are ideas? How is that so?

Getting a song stuck in your head (commonly called "earworm", but I think that's a terrible name for it. I think "memelody" makes more sense) when you hear the tune or someone says something that reminds you of it I think qualifies as a meme but not an idea, especially if there is some shared culture reference that makes multiple people think of the same tune from similar stimuli.

I see, thanks a lot for your reply.

I think certain kinds of celebrity gossip may qualify as memes also. I'm confident that gossip is definitely not "ideas".

Thank you again, I should check strong definition of "idea" in use but anyway I see the point there.

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