<
https://theconversation.com/much-wow-very-meme-what-the-revival-of-the-ancient-doge-meme-tells-us-about-the-lifecycle-of-the-internet-203560>
"In early April, when Elon Musk randomly and very briefly replaced the Twitter
bird logo with the face of the “doge” meme, the value of the dogecoin both rose
and fell by a matter of billions of dollars in value on the cryptomarket.
Internet users revelled in the idea that a simple doge meme could impact the
real world in such a dramatic way. This relative absurdity is also coupled with
the fact that dogecoin itself was started in 2013 as a “joke coin”, but is now
the seventh biggest cryptocurrency in the world.
The fact that a meme, based on a “peculiar” but largely unremarkable rescue
dog, could rule over the fate of billions of dollars worth of market value
speaks to the totally remarkable nature of the strange phenomenon of Internet
memes.
At one time in our internet’s history, memes were perhaps regarded as mere
playful and inconsequential byproducts of online culture. However, now, it is
clear that memes have very real impacts on our world. Things that leave impacts
also leave history.
So not only do memes play a clear role in public discourse, but we are now
appreciating that the family tree of memes holds
memory. Memes are
simultaneously a fascinating historical record of digital culture as well as
the detritus of the cyber age."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
