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Academic Rizzlers
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this post was submitted on 02 May 2024
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Science Memes
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I'm not sure how to phrase this well but I feel like you're giving memes way too much credit by comparing them to idioms. There is nothing being added to the message when paired with a generic meme template so it's not as much a method to express yourself as it is an attempt at giving the reader a dopamine hit when they recognize the image. It's also different than words or phrases evolving because it's the image template, not the words, giving the dopamine hit.
I think my issue with them can be described as this: Most memes aren't made to communicate an idea, they're made to get attention. They're the visual equivalent of a clickbait headline and I don't think they're adding to or changing our language. If what you have to say is too banal to be said without an image template, why make it if not for those sweet sweet upvotes?
I'm not necessarily arguing here, just trying to find the right words to express my feelings on it.
Memes don't end at the image though. And by now, lots of memes are more than just images. If I say I'm going to "yeet" something, most people (below a certain age) know what that means. They don't all become language, but the better, more popular ones do. It's the same way we get all our words, really. I don't know where the term "blue blooded" comes from, but I can still use it. In the same way, I don't know where "down bad" came from, but I still know I'm down bad for etymology, and the study of evolutionary linguistics; it's all fascinating.
Yeet is an example of a word or idea that fits the original description of meme, though. My "issue" (using that word lightly) is the overuse of image templates in place of words
Literally no one was talking about image templates until you brought them up, and the type that you're referencing seem totally irrelevant to this conversation about words in academic paper titles.
It's extremely adjacent. The original post is not about individual words that are new to the language being used...they're talking about quotes and references. How do those get shared nowadays? Through image templates.