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A Quantitative Study of How Memes Spread
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Thu Feb 12, 2009 08:47 AM
from the please-no-more-25-things dept.
from the please-no-more-25-things dept.
rememberclifford writes "A survey of about 3,000 people who were tagged in a '25 Random Things About Me' note on Facebook found that memes spread through social networks in a remarkably similar way as diseases do. A biologist who looked at the data says that '"25 Things" authors can be seen as "contagious" under what's known as a "susceptible-infected-recovered" model for the spread of disease,' with a propagation factor of 0.27 in this case. But like an infection, the whole thing died out as quickly as it exploded once the number of 'victims' — people who were willing to write 25 things about themselves — was depleted." The '25 Things' meme was at least as annoying as a light flu.
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Submission: A quantitative study of how memes spread. by Anonymous Coward
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They should have surveyed (Score:4, Funny)
over 9,000.
Meme Theory 101 (Score:5, Interesting)
You guys are finally catching up to me.
http://www.realmeme.com/Main/theory101/index.jsp [realmeme.com]
Here's the mechanism for Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine"....
http://www.realmeme.com/Main/theory101/diffraction.jsp [realmeme.com]
You can determine patient zero entry points, periods of susceptibility, etc, through simple keyword counts and some semantic analysis.
Parent
Re:Meme Theory 101 (Score:4, Funny)
In my meme theory, a key indicator that meme growth is entering death phase is when politicians pick it up. Cf. the macarena with the Clintons and now CA Attorney Gen (and candidate for governor) Jerry Brown w/ 25 things (his fb page)
Wow... very very interesting; perhaps because if a politician says it, it magically become instantly boring.
NOW, for the sake of god and country, I must state that I will not vote for any politician who goes Goatse'ing around.
Parent
Re:They should have surveyed (Score:5, Funny)
If the "25 Things" meme was akin to a light flu, then the damn Soviet Russia meme must be like the virus from 28 Days Later.
I only hope that it too causes the host to eventually die of starvation.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I was thinking more like malaria. Every time you think you're "better" it's just gone into a quiescent phase--it always comes back.
Re:They should have surveyed (Score:5, Funny)
In Soviet Russia memes spread you!
Apologies. I'll get my coat.
Parent
Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (Score:5, Interesting)
I think the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell explained how this happens well. He said there are three rules for this kind of spreading of fads... the law of the few, stickiness factor and the power of context.
I won't repeat it all, however it seems to me that the best memes have a few central people, with lots of friends, who spread it around. Malcolm spends a great deal of time giving examples of how fads and trends all start by getting to one of these well connected communicators. His first example is of Paul Revere.
Re:Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (Score:5, Informative)
He explained the spread of the Hush Puppy shoes by supposing it was started by a bunch of youths in New York City. He then concluded it was spread by viral marketing by such kids. Total circular logic with no evidence. Again, good book but it could have used a little more evidence to support its claims.
Parent
Re:Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (Score:4, Funny)
Hrm... interesting point. I found an insightful lecture on this very topic [youtube.com] not so long ago that allegorized the concept of the "well connected individual".
Turns out that about 3% of the world's population create effects that the other 97% just talk about...
Parent
Annoying? (Score:2, Interesting)
How does this compare to email memes? (Score:4, Interesting)
The "25 Things" meme reminded me of the chain emails that were ever so popular in the early to mid 90s. I wonder how the "rate of infection" on face book compares to a similar meme delivered by email. Specifically, I wonder if the public nature of "25 Things" invitations on facebook enhance its ability to be transmitted from one victim to another. Email is generally read in a very private way, where facebook invitations happen in front of your entire (online) social network.
Any thoughts on this?
Re:How does this compare to email memes? (Score:4, Insightful)
I got tagged to write a "25 thing" note fairly late in the game. I was mostly interested in seeing if I would get tagged at all. Once I did though, I was able to resist the urge to actually post it.
There's enough crap about me on FB already if anyone is actually interested.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I would say not. The state of Texas believed Barrack Obama is a Muslim at a rate double the rest of the country (~20% vs ~10%). The Texans I know were getting it spread exclusively through e-mail. The e-mail vector is at least as "contagious" as Facebook, if not more so. More people have e-mail accounts than Facebook accounts. Many people have multiple e-mail accounts and no Facebook account, including me.
(Incidentally, the Texans I know no longer believe Barrack Obama is a Muslim, solely on the basis
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Incidentally, the Texans I know no longer believe Barrack Obama is a Muslim, solely on the basis that he used his left hand to sign his inauguration papers.
But doesn't that make him Satanic? I don't get it.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Apparently Satanic is better than Muslim, to them. Just like a gay politician is better than an atheist politician.
Don't try to analyze it. It will just make your head explode.
So facebook spreads disease. (Score:2, Funny)
I always suspected there was something infectious about facebook..
It seems to follow the herpes model too. Once you got it. It's forever!
Re:So facebook spreads disease. (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:So facebook spreads disease. (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
25 things was extremely wide-spread. (Score:2, Interesting)
I got tagged by about three friends who were not in contact with each other. A nice demonstration for the Small World hypothesis.
Easy. (Score:5, Funny)
1. Someone posts something that's funny because it involves shared cultural reference and experience for that community.
2. It gets modded up +5 funny.
3. ???
4. Profit!
Re:Easy. (Score:4, Funny)
Nothing is funnier about '25 things' than what Linus himself wrote in his blog [blogspot.com], reproduced here for your convenience, in its entirety:
1. I get bored really easily.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
26. I sometimes don't know when to stop.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You're the man now, Dog!
Don't click the link! (Score:2, Informative)
It's a trap!
Technically it's an STI (Score:5, Insightful)
Males will only have filled it in and passed it on if it was sent to them by a girl they want to sleep with, so it's more like some sort of sexually transmitted infection than flu.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
No, we doctors are calling them STI's now because infection is more accurate a word than "disease". Not everyone who is infected manifests the symptoms (the disease), but they are still infected.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Oh, and it sounds like less of a taboo too! Almost cool. "Dude, I just got the latest STI." "Your computer must be so fast now!" "Yeah..." *scratch scratch*
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Your a doctor and THAT is your sig?
Yes. Physicians are humans too. I'm sorry if you don't like my sense of humor - my sig exists to show the world I am anything but politically correct. However no REAL puppies are ever harmed. I like puppies... (They are especially good with mustard?)
Was? (Score:4, Interesting)
That's more of a chain letter, though; a meme that explicitly instructs that it be copied onward. That's nothing new, we've had chain letters for a hundred years or more, and religions for millennia. That's cheating. I'd be interested in seeing a study of the spread of a more passive meme, of which I'm sure there are over 9000 examples, at least in Soviet Russia. How do ideas spread among a population organically, without this lame 'now forward to all your friends' thing? Something along the lines of Dawkins' original study of citations of a scientific paper, and how they increase slowly as the meme spreads and then suddenly increase rapidly after some critical point. The same could be done with internet memes: perhaps an index of how many non-/b/tards are using a meme as an indicator of its popularity. Or indeed with fashion trends; I understand that some marketing firms have been known to identify the alpha child in a given playground and straight-out bribe him to wear their brands...
Memes and Disease (Score:5, Insightful)
This just in: a method of studying the spread of ideas that attempts to use viral disease as it's model finds that ideas spread like viral disease.
There's a cure here (Score:3, Funny)
Memes can turn into a serious problem for society. Fortunately our future Martian overlords know just how to deal with it, as witnessed here [project-apollo.net]. This is why it is imperative that we visit Mars and set up colonies there...
A preemptive warning: (Score:3, Funny)
Rules 1 and 2, brothers.
Re:A preemptive warning: (Score:5, Funny)
1. Never get involved in a land war in Asia
>p>2. Never go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line.
What does that have to do with Facebook? Other than the "death" part?
Parent
Re:A preemptive warning: (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Now I feel better... (Score:5, Funny)
I thought that by ignoring all that crap I was being my usual antisocial self. But it turns out, I'm actually like a naturally immune member of the population.
This is all well and good but I want to know... (Score:4, Funny)
How is memme formed?
Real answer... (Score:5, Informative)
Meme is pronounced similarly to gene. Is that "jeen", "jay nay", or "jee nee"? :)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Touch
Re:Real question... (Score:5, Funny)
Wait a minute. I think you're trying to start a meme about how to pronounce meme.
I CALL SHENANIGANS!
Parent
Re:Real question... (Score:5, Funny)
Mr. Shenanigans is calling from Soviet Russia on line 1.
Parent
Re:Real question... (Score:5, Informative)
I remember talking about this word in grade school, oddly enough... It's pronounced "mem meee"
I have two links for you. First, folk etymology is when you try to reconstruct the orgin of the word based on something other than actual research: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_etymology [wikipedia.org]
Second, the word meme was coined by Richard Dawkins (a biologist) to explain how ideas can pass from one person to a next and change slightly, just like genes. He says the word is pronounced to rhyme with "gene," and he should know, since he made it up. With all apologies to your grade school classmates, of course.
Oh, here's your second link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme [wikipedia.org]
Parent
Feeding myself a dictionary... (Score:4, Funny)
"Quantitative", you idiot.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Memes are a sociological phenomenon, and are studied seriously by sociologists.
Not that I think sociology is a proper science, mind you, but it's still something that should be and has been studied seriously.
Actually, the REAL victims IMHO (Score:5, Insightful)
... are the dolts who still repeat something that sounded cool or smart when it was new, but in the meantime it's just retarded and offtopic. It's the people who, many years later, still think there's something clever or even shocking about a rickrolling (it was at least a pun when someone turned "duckrolling" into "rickrolling", but I doubt that most of the retards still doing it these days even know that), or even about the ever popular goatse link (we've all seen it already, there's hardly any shock value left in it), or talking in wikipedia tags ("[citation needed]" was witty when someone first spouted it, but in the meantime it just says "I'm too retarded to talk in complete sentences _or_ come up with an original witticism of my own"), or pretty much 99% of the phrases being recirculated. There's nothing witty, original, funny or shocking about being the millionth mindless clone using someone else's joke or wisecrack any more, but some people just can't seem to recover anyway.
Like in the infecection analogy, the healthy minds have dealt with it and moved on. The ones with a broken immune system (except in this case it's the IQ;) are still stuck with it after years, and still icapable of doing much more than spew more copies of the virus.
Honestly, I find these even more pityful than a journalist writing about memes once and then moving on.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
tl;dr
Re:Actually, the REAL victims IMHO (Score:5, Insightful)
Lighten up, Francis. Witty catchphrases and bon mots have always found a way to enter the language; some die out, some continue for centuries or even millennia. After all, there's nothing new under the sun, and a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
Yes, some turn into tired cliches, and I agree with you that rickrolling needs to die. But if you disallowed people from using popculture catch phrases years after they were originally cool, you'd gut out about half of the language (and inadvertently cancel Family Guy).
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
No, I genuinely mean retarded (Score:4, Insightful)
No, I genuinely mean retarded. It's not a case of "I don't like them", it's a case of "most of the time it doesn't even make sense, nor make them look as smart as they seem to think." Some 90% of the uses of memes don't actually even have any meaning, and certainly don't convey any information in the context they're used.
E.g., a decade later all the "first post" posts stopped being new, witty or funny, and basically just say "I'm a troll adding noise to the signal, and can't even think of anything original either." There are _very_ few instances where they're on topic. (E.g., maybe a discussion about such posts.) Far from being a claim to being witty or funny, it's basically a claim of being a dumb and unimaginative troll. Why _would_ someone who's not retarded actually want to make that claim in public?
E.g., in Soviet Russia. The original joke was something like, "in the USA you find a party on a Saturday night, in Soviet Russia the party finds you." It was a clever word-play on the two meanings of the word "party". That was actually the funny part: that switching the meanings too, not just the word around. Many years later, enter the common Slashdot troll. He got the word switching right, but not the part where it's actually a pun or otherwise witty or funny. So what are they trying to prove there? That they have about enough brain to switch words around, but not enough to do the joke right, or even understand what the joke was? I.e., about as much as a parrot?
And again, in which contexts is it even remotely relevant? I'll cut it a lot of slack in threads which actually do mention the USSR or Russia, like the orbital collision earlier, even if they manage to get it executed the usual way that misses the whole joke. But otherwise it's just some off-topic noise that's not even funny or witty. Yay, someone butted in a topic about server clusters, to post an "in Soviet Russia computers cluster you." That's so funny without the actual word-play, and he's so smart and witty. Not.
E.g., I won't complain about our AC friend for the "tl;dr" meme in this thread, and would probably even mod him funny myself, because it _is_ a thread about memes. Fair enough. He found an overused meme to post in a thread about overused memes. That's cool.
But it's also popping up all over the place, in all threads, and sometimes to messages 3-4 sentences long. What clever insight is it supposed to impart there? Because from where I stand, it just makes the claim, "hey, look at me! I'm not here to actually read! I'm here to skip directly to trolling! And I'm too stupid to understand that nobody asked _me_ to read it anyway, or to use the back button!" It's something that might make sense on something that you're _supposed_ to read, like a memo at work, but just proves lack of elementary intelligence on a forum where nobody gives a rat's arse about who reads exactly which message. That a completely random John Doe found a random message too long for his broken attention span, is simply a non-issue and non-information.
Even as a trolling devices go, it seems to me like a pretty retarded one. It doesn't even say much about the message or poster it's answering to, but just about the one who posted it. As such, it lacks even much of an annoyance value or baiting value. So some guy just confessed that he's here just to troll and/or can't read more than a paragraph. So what? Should I send him a coupon for ADHD treatement, or what?
Etc.
I'm not talking about a matter of subjective tastes, but about what I consider genuinely a failure of logic and/or intelligence.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
"Retarded" means "below normal development for its age". Given that, saying that 90% of uses of memes is retarded is a contradiction in terms. The majority of people cannot be retarded, yo
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I think I understand your point, but I don't really see a problem. I don't think you can make a case that the whole population just mindlessly parrots memes to impress, which is kinda needed for that 90% to translate into 90% of the po