Meme Transmission and How Memes Are Shared
By Courtenay Adams
Meme modes of transmission are as varied as the formats themselves, but against our best judgment we’re going to try and pin them down, anyway.
Share All the Memes All the Different Ways
Woodworth emphasizes the ubiquity of meme sharing and consumption, especially in an online setting using tools built right into the web ecosystem: “One cannot avoid them on their social media feeds, message board sites, or anything that touches upon internet culture. These are the streets of the online world and memes are a part of that landscape.” And if the online world is a series of streets connecting one piece of content to another, then hashtags are the wayfinding points.
Still, over the past couple of decades, some platforms have proven more effective than others at forwarding and transforming memes.
The Bumpy Ride of Sharing Memes on Social Media
A New York Times article breaks down how meme sharing on different social media sites amplifies misinformation, and while Tessa tackles the issue of misinformation in more depth, the article is great at pointing out how the major social media platforms of today contribute to meme culture. Twitter, for example, allows easy retweeting of posts to new audiences, while TikTok has one of the most effective discovery algorithms when it comes to giving new memes exposure. As the writer describes, all the platforms have “different mechanisms for virality,” making them equally enticing and challenging.
Additionally, the hierarchy of meme sharing spaces is hardly stable. Less than a decade ago, Tumblr was viewed as one of the biggest platforms for establishing virality thanks to its visual nature, especially after one particular innocent little post asked us all whether a certain dress was white and gold or blue and black. Unfortunately, between acquisitions gone wrong, culture crises, and a very unpopular NSFW ban on the platform, Tumblr quickly…tumbled…off the hill it had once stood on.
Different Meme Types, Different Transmission Zones
Some spaces are also better known for the transmission of specific meme themes.
As a video platform that enables users to easily remix both audio and video, TikTok has ascended to the top for dance-based memes. It’s been particularly successful at spreading dance challenges set by one user for others to remix and upload to their own accounts, and its aforementioned discovery-centric algorithm and use of hashtags makes the spread of dance content seamless.
TikTok, however, is not the only platform known to popularize dance memes. Some of the biggest dance trends in recent years have come from good ol’ fashioned television. Dabbing was popularized after professional football players used it for end-zone celebrations during a NFL broadcast televised nationally in the United States (the inventor of the dab remains up for debate). Virality of the dab was then secured further on short-form video platform Vine. (Note: Like Tumblr, Vine, too, saw a rapid decline after reaching the height of its popularity thanks to not offering effective monetization strategies to content creators alongside the existence of stiff competition from competitors like TikTok).
Backpack Boy’s The Floss dance was also popularized on television during a Katy Perry SNL performance, and now points to one of the most interesting places dance memes are finding renewed virality—video games. Fortnite, in particular, has incorporated a series of trendy and funny dances into its gameplay, and with hundreds of millions of players, it’s both an intriguing and powerful vessel of meme transmission.
4chan and Reddit are often credited for inspiring specific brands of politics-based virality. To be sure, while both see multiple points of view represented in their forums (particularly Reddit), they’ve sadly developed a strong reputation for the transmission of memes steeped in hate, racism, and proud political incorrectness.
Conclusion: The Inescapable Meme
While the above has explored some of the primary avenues of meme transmission over the past decade or so, in truth, the whole “monkey see, monkey do” aspect of human existence suggests that we always have been and always will be primed for sharing visual, verbal, and aural trends. If you’re not a fan of memes, well, good luck with that. They’re coming at you from everywhere.
For a list of sources, please view our references list.
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