Every meme, trend, idea, fandom, or website on the internet that sees at least some popularity at one point in time seems to go through certian phases, like so:
The first few phases to be similar, regardless of the meme, and the last few phases generally tend to end in one of four ways:
-It blows up in popularity, then everyone gets sick of it, and then it's "forgotten" (i.e. no longer talked about more than once in a blue moon by everyone but the remaining fandom.) See: fnaf, twilight, beiber, etc.
-It gradually rises in popularity, there's some backlash, then is gradually is forgotten. See: Nyancat, Slenderman, rage comics
-It raises in popularity and survives the backlash and it isn't totally "forgotten", though depending on future events, that could change. See: Pokemon, Mario, Sonic
-It proves to fulfil some need so it raises in popularity, and transcends a meme, becoming a semi-permenant part of our culture (until it becomes obsolete). See: Google, Social Media
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Now these four categories aren't mutually exclusive, but I feel they cover pretty much any trend on the internet that has some sort of "end" even if it is a tentative one.
But I've noticed there seem to some things that don't seem to have an end, and for some of these, they even seem to have cycles rather than phases (a good example would be april fool's website modifications).
I feel like the majority of these memes can be seperated into two categories: those that predate the internet, and those that sustain themselves.
The pre-internet memes obviously survive because they've already proved strong enough to "survive". But it's the self-perpetuating ones that interest me most.
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In the vast majority of cases I've seen, the self-perpetuating ones are actually a system of two memes that ensure the other's survival, in an unexpected way. The "fandoms" of these memes perpetuate the existence of the other mem in the pair due to enough members of said "fandoms" continually raising awarness of its existence, though often in an unflattering way. Examples include r/atheism and religious memes, the stereotype of the offensive member of 4chan and the stereotype of the offended member of 4chan, the knowledge that SJW "fandom" and "hatedom" both exist, and the mindless acceptance of Game Theory's theories and the barbs aimed at Game Theory.
To clarify, I'm not saying that other factors don't contribute, or that it's impossible for one to exist for a long time without the other. I'm simply suggesing that the two memes have a symbiotic (if vitriolic) relationship.
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Let me provide a totally subjective example: It's not uncommon for me to see jokes about triggers here or on youtube, yet out of the thousands of YouTube videos I've watched, I've only seen two or three trigger warnings, and the comments sections of those videos were full of trigger jokes. In other words, the trigger warnings caused an increased spread of trigger warning jokes that wouldn't have otherwise occured, and the trigger warning jokes brought to mind trigger warnings much more often than the actual trigger warnings. Yes, other factors are at play, and my own subjective experience almost certainly don't represent the true prevalence of the two. However, it is clear that both owe at least some portion of their spread to the other.
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Still, do these meme-pairs ever reach a conclusion? And if not, why?
Sorry this was all a bit long. I'm very interested into any opinions or insights you have on these ideas. If I didn't make it clear enough, these are just tentative hypotheses, not claims of fact. I'm sure there are plenty of gaps in my reasoning and things that I didn't consider, and that is the entire reason I created this thread-- so I could ask you to help me find them,
