• ripcord@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        16
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        5 months ago

        Wait, is any image now a meme? This isn’t a comic strip, in Comic Strips?

        • MindTraveller@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          7
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          5 months ago

          Always has been. A meme is a self replicating unit of information. The meme exclusionists are just engaged in historical revisionism.

            • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              7
              ·
              5 months ago

              Not really, no.

              A meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme

              The comic strip format could be characterized as a memetic style of communication that has spread by imitation from person to person.

              Such is not true of ferns, for example.

        • Otter@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          5 months ago

          A lot of comic strips do end up as memes

          I’d say that it only “becomes a meme” once it’s being shared around with small modifications, but when you see a comic for the first time then you might not know if that has happened already or not?

          Edit, it’s now a meme

        • samus12345@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          5 months ago

          Originally, no, this wouldn’t have qualified as a meme, but now it pretty much just means “any image that’s shared online for the purpose of entertainment”.

        • Farid@startrek.website
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          5 months ago

          The definition is very vague now. And it definitely applies to any humorous images being spread using social media. And comics fall into that category.