Memes don’t end at the image though. And by now, lots of memes are more than just images. If I say I’m going to “yeet” something, most people (below a certain age) know what that means. They don’t all become language, but the better, more popular ones do. It’s the same way we get all our words, really. I don’t know where the term “blue blooded” comes from, but I can still use it. In the same way, I don’t know where “down bad” came from, but I still know I’m down bad for etymology, and the study of evolutionary linguistics; it’s all fascinating.
Yeet is an example of a word or idea that fits the original description of meme, though. My “issue” (using that word lightly) is the overuse of image templates in place of words
Literally no one was talking about image templates until you brought them up, and the type that you’re referencing seem totally irrelevant to this conversation about words in academic paper titles.
It’s extremely adjacent. The original post is not about individual words that are new to the language being used…they’re talking about quotes and references. How do those get shared nowadays? Through image templates.
Memes don’t end at the image though. And by now, lots of memes are more than just images. If I say I’m going to “yeet” something, most people (below a certain age) know what that means. They don’t all become language, but the better, more popular ones do. It’s the same way we get all our words, really. I don’t know where the term “blue blooded” comes from, but I can still use it. In the same way, I don’t know where “down bad” came from, but I still know I’m down bad for etymology, and the study of evolutionary linguistics; it’s all fascinating.
Yeet is an example of a word or idea that fits the original description of meme, though. My “issue” (using that word lightly) is the overuse of image templates in place of words
Literally no one was talking about image templates until you brought them up, and the type that you’re referencing seem totally irrelevant to this conversation about words in academic paper titles.
It’s extremely adjacent. The original post is not about individual words that are new to the language being used…they’re talking about quotes and references. How do those get shared nowadays? Through image templates.