On the other hand, I was also curious as to what contributes to the meme’s longevity and whether meme relevance has something to do with this.Relevance plays an important role, according to Professor Geher.
“The relevance of memes is also important: memes that make people say, ‘Oh, I totally understand — that’s me! I recently saw him show a stove and say, “You know you’re a real adult when you have a burner that you really like.” At 53, I can’t help but say “yes!!!” when I see this. Yes, relevance is certainly important when it comes to fostering meme success and longevity. We totally agree with the professor on this one (and many of us probably also have a favorite stove burner).
Professor Geher pointed out that the term “meme” itself actually comes from the work of evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. In the 1980s, Dawkins “defined a meme as a unit of cultural evolution, which has the capacity for replication and diffusion”. This “sheds light on the actual term itself — memes sound like genes!”
To read more of Geher’s insights, see the topics he covers. sub stack and psychology today blog.
