This new meme-as-malware example notices the brand new similarity ranging from memes and you will disease agencies. Getting epidemiology as its model, they takes into account memes the newest social alternatives from flu bacilli, sent from communicational alternatives out-of sneezes ( Alvarez, 2004). Into the Internet culture, that it metaphor are commonplace regarding extremely apparent discourse to the “viral” articles. Yet Jenkins et al. ( 2009) truly demand that metaphor has been used during the a problematic way, conceptualizing people due to the fact powerless and you may couch potato creatures, subject to the newest control away from worthless media “snacks” that contaminate their thoughts.
So it conceptualization men and women given that effective representatives is highly right for finding out how memes travel with the digital highway, especially if examining circumstances where 1st concept of an excellent meme is actually drastically altered during their diffusion
Another commonplace physical metaphor to own memes -deriving directly from Dawkins’ performs-takes evolutionary genes as the design. However, specific works features “pushed the newest analogy towards gene to help you their analytical extremes” of the trying cultural competitors for all dominant evolutionary hereditary principles, along with genotype, phenotype, transcription, and you can password ( Alvarez, 2004, p. 25). It work are slammed besides given that memes act most in another way than simply genetics ( Atran, 2001), in addition to while the reduced amount of society to help you biology narrows and you will simplifies advanced individual habits. The newest commonplace perception is actually thus that the meme-gene example will be drawn with several grains of sodium ( Blackmore, 1999). To phrase it differently, this isn’t must think of biology when checking out memes. Continue reading “One or two biological analogies are specifically commonplace from the commentary from the memes: worms and you may family genes”