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What is the origin of the term meme? The term meme was introduced in 1976 by British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins..
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Meme, unit of cultural information spread by . The term meme (from the Greek mimema, meaning “imitated”) was introduced in 1976 by British evolutionary biologist in his work .
Dawkins of memes as the cultural parallel to biological and considered them, in a manner similar to “selfish” genes, as being in control of their own reproduction and thus serving their own ends. Understood in those terms, memes carry information, are replicated, and are transmitted from one person to another, and they have the ability to evolve, mutating at random and undergoing , with or without impacts on human fitness (reproduction and survival). The concept of the meme, however, remains largely theoretical. It is also controversial, given the notion of selfishness and the application of the concept to the of , which formed the basis for the field of .
In the early 21st century, Internet memes, or that emerge within the culture of the , gained popularity, bringing renewed interest to the meme concept. Internet memes spread from person to person through imitation, typically by e-mail, , and various types of . They often take the form of pictures, videos, or other media containing cultural information that, rather than mutating randomly, have been deliberately altered by individuals. Their deliberate alteration, however, violates Dawkins’s original of memes, and, for that , despite their fundamental similarity to other types of memes, Internet memes are considered by Dawkins and certain other scholars to be a different representation of the meme concept.