Until a week ago, I had never even heard of a meme. Now they’re plastered all over Facebook, clogging up my newsfeed with their wittiness. And frankly, I’m still not convinced that they aren’t a repetitive, self-obsessed cry for attention. (The joke will become apparent later).
Still, I shouldn’t be surprised. Facebook and indeed social media in general always move ahead of my electronic proclivities. As soon as I’ve mastered the latest gimmick, the next arrives. Only the other day, I finally grasped the Guardian Online, and the tactics required to project the idealised journalistic profile to my ‘friends’. You know the feeling. The one where you flick through your ‘article history’ to discover that most of the articles are either banal or sex-related. And then the guilt which induces you to hurriedly click on a series of more serious articles so you can purport to also care about ‘the issues’. And go to Cambridge.
Then, all of a sudden, along comes a meme. My first thought: why is this all about ‘me’? Surely it would be more efficient simply to write me2. In any case, the memes are spreading, and fast, feasting off Cambridge stereotypes.
Naturally Homerton and Johns have fared worst of the colleges. The former may as well not be in Cambridge. And the latter, well, most people wish that it wasn’t. But enough college-ism. Clearly everyone’s special in the Cambridge community. Unless you study education.
Finally, a quick quibble with the memes I’ve seen: all to often, despite their generalisations, they’re undeniably right. In fact, the frequency of their correctness is beginning to undermine my belief in my own independent agency.
My only serious observation is that memes alter the discourse, offering an easier, faster, and more striking avenue for sharing in-jokes and parodying the institutions around us. If you are a fan of empowerment, then you should enter quickmeme.com
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