Since the expressed, meme group that were seen to be the absolute most natural was also those people sharing unique content and form characteristics (Roentgen 2 = .83). Such as for example, “Too Really Higher” exclusively works with political points, and in “Photo of the day,” most times integrated each other visual and you can sounds variations.
They displays three degrees of quiddity concreteness, appearing you to meme family which have a highly visible and you may real quiddity (an item or a particular character) plus had a tendency to have significantly more natural and unique content, contribution, and mode universal services. Brand new over the top high many “Celebrity Wars Kid” exemplify this family relations. The brand new consistent presence of one’s unique blade from the majority away from times offered this meme family unit members a tangible quiddity. However, at the same time, a number of the hours was indeed much like each other when you look at the the fresh new common form, involvement, and you can stuff functions, writing on new seemingly novel facts from fights.
Discussion
Within this research, i functioning an enormous-measure research to analyze the latest templates and you may structures underpinning Websites meme communities. Our deviation area was a theoretical difference between one or two forces you to definitely join web sites memes together: the specific quiddities of their own family unit members additionally the generic functions of the wide meme society. We strived not just to provide a detailed article on these forces, as well as to spell it out how they is related to each other, and the structure regarding meme companies. The new conclusions from the exploratory attempt donate to new books with the internet memes in a lot of theoretical and methodological domains, because summarized below.
Distinguishing popular quiddity brands: Our very own study found four sorts of quiddities – object, particular reputation, general profile, step, and you may terms. The fact that action is actually the most frequent is very discussing: In some cases, they shown brand new embodied characteristics off internet sites memes, and this generate to the activities of people who replicate someone else in the personal sphere (Shifman, 2013 ). Imitating a task inside the an individual’s very own strategy is mostly easy to manage while the design is straightforward understand (Lewis, 2012 ). Therefore, it might end up being the an inviting answer to are yourself with the the fresh new memetic change.
Shape step 3 reveals into a beneficial scatter area graph the important confident dating between your quiddity concreteness out-of meme household additionally the cohesiveness and you will individuality of its generic services
Identifying the fresh new main-stream (and you may periphery) of your memetic industries: I discussed the brand new traditional out-of meme culture of the detailing probably the most well-known articles, contribution, and you may setting attributes of common internet memes in addition to their era. Supporting previous qualitative findings (Milner, 2012 , 2013c), it absolutely was discovered that white male youngsters and you can teenagers was basically the average professionals in most cases. Popular culture, dinner, and you can new news was basically the most frequent subject areas, when you are political posts is much less common. These types of conclusions corroborate earlier talks of your own “whimsical” gist off web sites memes as well as their strong association in order to pop music people (Knobel & Lankshear, 2007 ; Shifman, 2012 ).
The fresh new cohesiveness and you may uniqueness out of meme family: Because of the difference in quiddity and you can generic functions, the brand new Introvert Sites dating service cohesiveness out of a beneficial meme household members with regards to universal articles, involvement, and you may means isn’t protected. Our conclusions imply that no matter if meme family members are usually natural, the level of cohesiveness varies between group. A main feature that people seen to be coordinated with this specific variability are uniqueness, otherwise range from the popular. The greater number of book a beneficial meme family members is actually, more brand new resemblance out-of services among their circumstances. Which searching for validates that which we tagged due to the fact individuality-cohesiveness pendulum: It demonstrates that the basic tension ranging from communality and you can identity underpinning users’ motivations is even manifested about companies regarding memes you to they generate.