Monday 24 March 2014

Meatspace memetics in Forbes

Forbes have an article on "meatspace memetics". It covers the use of social media tags as graffiti.

For me, the article is notable for using the term "meatspace memetics". Meatspace - as opposed to cyberspace - is a relatively old term, but it is one that works well with the "meme" term - contrasting "meatspace memes" with "internet memes".

A number of other terms from memetics seem to me to have the potential to go viral - and become much more popular. "Memetic hitchhiking" is an extremely important concept that should be mentioned in practically every marketing article ever written. However, the term is currently not getting those mentions, and as a result, the whole concept is under-used and under-appreciated. I think we should all be hearing much more about "memetic engineering", "memetic hijacking" and "meme warfare", "meme therapy" and "memetic linkage" too.

Essentially, I blame foot-dragging by social scientists - who don't understand memetics - for its poor update to date. The memophobes have been a drag on the field for far too long for my taste.

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