According to Postman’s article “Memes, L/literacy and Classroom Learning,” “…memes are contagious patterns of cultural information that are passed from mind to mind to directly shape and propogate key actions and mindsets of a social group” (211). On a more basic level, memes are ideas passed from person to person for the purpose of conveying a message. These messages are not necessarily meant to teach anything moral- some of them are solely for humorous purposes, some are meant to convey political messages, and many of them are used as a means of social commentary.
I think the easiest way to understand the meme concept is to actually look at some of the memes that are flying across the internet. The internet is a popular tool for the transmission of memes, since Web 2.0 has made online interaction possible for basically everyone who has access. Weblogs, in particular, can be very useful for spreading these types of ideas. Badger, Badger, Badger is an example of a humorous meme. It is nonsensical and seems to have been created solely for entertainment. The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is a meme that also has elements of humor. However, it is also meant to convey a message and take a stand. The website is full of pictures of religious fundamentalists holding hateful signs. Although the website seems to poke fun at the idea of religion, it also conveys the thoughts and opinions of a particular group of people.
I think that the social commentary that can be found within memes is what makes them so applicable to the classroom. Students can have class discussions about memes in the same way that they can analyze political cartoons. Teachers, however, must be careful to fully research the memes before they choose to incorporate them into their classrooms. Some of them are offensive or inappropriate to show to students.
An example of a meme that is appropriate for the classroom is The Generosity Game. Basically, the website encourages people to spread the meme of “generosity” by doing something nice for an individual and then giving him or her a card that says “It’s Your Turn.” The website addresses it’s own viral nature, which could be great for discussion in the classroom. How can memes be transferred from person to person? What makes them so viral? How is this meme, in particular, traveling across several different mediums? Students do not have to limit their discussion to the content of the website- they can also interpret the way the information is relayed and relate it to how other forms of media are relayed to different audiences.
