Dawkins
English 102
Draft: Vampire memes
There are very different types of memes in our American culture that vary because of their impact in our society. First off, I would like to give a definition of what a meme exactly is. In my words, a meme is an idea in the form of an image, video ect. that can be passed down from person to person through interactions and the internet. According to Dawkins he believes a meme is A meme according to Dawkins is a new replicator, a noun that conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation. Dawkins also mentions that the word comes from the Greek root. An example he gives are tunes, ideas and clothes fashions. Lastly, Dawkins believe that memes have specific qualities including longevity, feculidity and copying fidelity. However the main question is how and what makes a meme so popular. In this essay I chose to talk about vampire memes. Vampires have been carried out for many years through different stories we heard and our fantasies which leads to our psychological thrill. Vampire’s memes remain so popular due to the history of vampires in American culture and through the media. First, vampire memes stay alive in our culture because of their history. If you were to ask someone to name a famous vampire, most people would say Dracula because of the stories people heard which lead one person to tell another person. Most people would also say vampires are human corpses that drink humans blood and come up from the dead to haunt living humans. Vampires first started from a superstition and a misinterpretation about how human bodies decay about a few hundred years ago. Before scientist could come up with some kind of theory, humans believed that any bad event that occurred could be blamed on vampires. Because of this, that is how humans came up with this superstition that bad things happen to good people. As time went on we started to believe in vampire protection. For example, there was this tradition that
Draft: Vampire memes
There are very different types of memes in our American culture that vary because of their impact in our society. First off, I would like to give a definition of what a meme exactly is. In my words, a meme is an idea in the form of an image, video ect. that can be passed down from person to person through interactions and the internet. According to Dawkins he believes a meme is A meme according to Dawkins is a new replicator, a noun that conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation. Dawkins also mentions that the word comes from the Greek root. An example he gives are tunes, ideas and clothes fashions. Lastly, Dawkins believe that memes have specific qualities including longevity, feculidity and copying fidelity. However the main question is how and what makes a meme so popular. In this essay I chose to talk about vampire memes. Vampires have been carried out for many years through different stories we heard and our fantasies which leads to our psychological thrill. Vampire’s memes remain so popular due to the history of vampires in American culture and through the media. First, vampire memes stay alive in our culture because of their history. If you were to ask someone to name a famous vampire, most people would say Dracula because of the stories people heard which lead one person to tell another person. Most people would also say vampires are human corpses that drink humans blood and come up from the dead to haunt living humans. Vampires first started from a superstition and a misinterpretation about how human bodies decay about a few hundred years ago. Before scientist could come up with some kind of theory, humans believed that any bad event that occurred could be blamed on vampires. Because of this, that is how humans came up with this superstition that bad things happen to good people. As time went on we started to believe in vampire protection. For example, there was this tradition that
Cited: "The Vampire in Modern American Media." The Vampire in Modern American Media. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Feb. 2013. Why Do Vampires Attract so Many Readers and Viewers?" Marginal Revolution RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Feb. 2013. <http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/11/why-do-vampires-attract-so-many-readers.html>.