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Is a viral video also a meme?

Last posted Feb 03, 2012 at 02:51PM EST. Added Feb 02, 2012 at 02:57PM EST
12 posts from 12 users

What 404 said. It depends on several factors.

1. How long the video has been out.
2. How popular it is.
3. If there have been variations/parodies of said video.
4. If it isn't obviously being forced like MMMeme.

Not to be mean, but for the love of god, stop making entries. You have made several entries that are not memes, but viral videos. A viral video is not a meme. A video that turns into a fad is different.

Nikolaki8 wrote:

Not to be mean, but for the love of god, stop making entries. You have made several entries that are not memes, but viral videos. A viral video is not a meme. A video that turns into a fad is different.

Not to be mean, but if you really have that much of a problem with it, put it in a PM. I know you've said this more than once, and you're only going make things more dramatic by bring it up in a public thread.

I believe a better question would be:
At what point can we call a video "viral"?

If you know that you can continue with:
If a video can be called "viral", at what point has it grown large enough to warrant an entry?

Last edited Feb 02, 2012 at 05:27PM EST
An Internet meme is an idea that is propagated through the World Wide Web. The idea may take the form of a hyperlink, video, picture, website, hashtag, or just a word or phrase, such as intentionally misspelling the word "more" as "moar" or "the" as "teh". The meme may spread from person to person via social networks, blogs, direct email, news sources, or other web-based services.

via Wikipedia

So according to that definition, a viral video can be a meme. According to Chris Menning's BuzzFeed post, the meme part of the viral video is the online conversations, related media, etc that happened as a result of the video.

Regardless, I think it's not very helpful to have velvet rope criteria for what a meme is. I think the word "meme" is more useful as an approach to discussing culture than it is as a category of culture. When you use the word "meme", it signals that you are approaching the cultural topic as if it is has a life of its own. That's why the "origin" and "spread" sections of our entries are so important.

Last edited Feb 03, 2012 at 02:51PM EST
Skeletor-sm

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