Longevity

Longevity is Dawkins' third major characteristic of a successful meme. The longer a meme remains viral, the more it can be replicated and spread onto new minds, ensuring its ongoing circulation. Longevity can only occur when ideal conditions for a meme's replication, innovation and evolution are in place. That is, circulation at an optimal time, such as coinciding with current events and spread within ideal affinity spaces, such as appropriate networks with relative opinions. A prime example of a long-surviving joke that has made its way into the digital world where it has become a fecund meme is what is known as the "Lebron ringless" meme. The memes of this joke can vary in terms of content but the main message of the joke remains constant, that is the theme of Lebron James's inability to win a NBA championship during the first 9 seasons of his career. Memes regarding the situation range from comparing him with other championship winning athletes, mobile phone ring tones and the Olympic logo. Since James has now won an NBA championship, the meme continues to live on, by comparing various cultural aspects of daily routines as having "more rings" then Lebron, for example, a phone usually rings more the once. The longevity of this particular Lebron James meme, among the many that is in circulation, is also due in large part to people connecting with the humour behind it, otherwise the meme would not be as long-lived as it has been. Indeed, some fans may claim that only a marquee player such as Lebron James could have generated such attention. However, what is perhaps most significant is that collectively, the Lebron James memes exhibit an aspect of fan culture that is diverse and yet complex, with an abundance of themes being contradictory to his star image.

Clearly, the memes' contradictions between James's pubic persona and marketing strategies and what a global fan base is thinking, hooked into a sizable and ultimately widespread discontent with James's personality. The Lebron James memes has proven to be robust and long-lived. A quick search on Google using terms like "Lebron James memes" or "Lebron ringless memes" brings up a plethora of links and images to websites that have reproduced different variations of meme concerning James, with many adding their own input and creations to the designs. The memes are infectious because of the absurd humour contained in the macro images, such as comparing James's lack of championships to the number rings that make up the Olympic logo. The humour within the exchange does not hide the notion of the high degree of generativity that exists within online sports fandom.

 

 

 

White Mamba has retired

After failing to gain interest from any NBA teams this off-season, Brian Scalabrine has announced his retirement from professional basketball and has accepted a position as a colour commentator for Boston Celtics games next season. The news of Scalabrine's retirement sent the online NBA meme community into a tailspin with tributes flooding in from fans. Meme communities such as NBA Humor and NBA Laughters marked the day of tribute as the "Scalabrine meme palooza". The search has already begun of who community members think is the next "best" player in the NBA, so it will be interesting whether if Scalabrine memes will continue to flourish or fade out like many have already previously. But for now, tribute memes devoted to Scalabrine have begun circulating en masse.

Best point guard in the NBA

The term "viral" has often been used to describe distinct practices and trends, ranging from spread through word-of-mouth to video remixes on YouTube. Viral media has had a profound effect on contemporary culture with trends and opinions being formed and spread like viruses, creating buzz via social networks and mobilising consumers and distributors, audiences and producers, friends and family to participate and discuss.

"Media viruses" spread through digital networks the same way biological viruses spread through the body or a community. Instead of travelling along a biological circulatory system, a media virus travels and spreads through networks within contemporary media. The core of the virus may be an event, invention, technology, opinion, scandal, rumour, image, a song or particular cultural figures. Any type of media virus will capture audience attention, resulting in the longevity of the virus through its replication, reproduction and spreadability. Once media viruses have been firmly attached within digital communities, its hidden agendas begins to spread within datastreams in the form of "ideological code, not genes, but a conceptual equivalent we now call "memes' (Rushkoff 1995, 9 - 10).

This week, the trending topic among NBA meme communities has been the "best point guard in the league". This meme originated from New York Knicks point guard Raymond Felton's comments claiming to be a more skilful player than his predecessor Jeremy Lin. Fans debated as to who really is currently the best point guard in the NBA by comparing player statistics and achievements through memes. Whether or not this particular theme will achieve the longevity associated with more successful memes remains to be seen, but, what is evident is that just about any notion within contemporary culture can capture the attention and generavitity of people. Felton by no means is a "poor" player but he certainly is not considered as one of the game’s elites, and at best, has never been more of a role player, and yet, a seemingly harmless comment can spark the attention of an entire online fan base. What will be interesting in the coming days (or weeks) is if this theme will continue to mutate or will it slowly fade away into obscurity like many already have.

Fidelity, Fecundity and Longevity

In The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins (1979) identifies three characteristics of memes as: fidelity, fecundity and longevity. Despite his work being written in 1979 and focused on human interaction from a biological perspective, Dawkins’s ideas can be applied to measure the evolution of particular internet memes.

Fidelity refers to the recognisability of the meme. That is, while variations are vital aspects to the evolution of a meme, the core idea of the meme usually remains intact. The majority of memes rely on the recognisability of the image, video or caption and if audiences can not connect the resemblance of the meme and the source text, then the meme will likely be unsuccessful.

For example, the “bitch please” meme uses the face of former NBA star Yao Ming to convey a dismissive or sarcastic attitude to one's ideas or input. The image is easily recognised by basketball fans but those who are not familiar with the sport likely would not understand the humour of it.

 

Through spreadability on the internet, the image macro has since become popular on meme templates and used as a vehicle to convey messages beyond the sport of basketball.

 

 

Fecundity refers to how rapidly a meme can be replicated and spread. Obviously, the more imitations that are spawned from a particular meme measures the success of the meme. When Anthony Davis was hyped as the future of basketball, images and videos of him in action saturated the online basketball fan community. However, fans quickly became more interested in his facial features rather then his basketball talents. Memes which made fun of his eyebrows and teeth began surfacing throughout the internet where thousands of replications have spawned as a result.

 

 

 
 



Longevity measures how long a particular meme can survive and evolve. For example memes concerning Lebron James's unsuccessful attempts at winning a NBA championship ring has been the topic of meme creations throughout his career. Now that he has won a NBA championship ring, memes regarding his inability to win more then one championship have become the norm.

 

 

The sharing of information on the internet promotes independence and autonomous creativity by lowering the barrier of entry for creative production where individuals are encouraged to participate in this cultural process and express themselves. Internet memes seem to tip-toe the very fine lines between creative innovation and tasteless kitsch, as well as profound wit and unsympathetic vulgarity. Regardless, whether users are producing successful memes or not, internet memes also have the power to significantly influence social beliefs, ideas, perceptions and values.

From an industrial standpoint, whether it is overwhelmingly supporting the underdog or profusely rejecting the superstar, internet memes through imitation, replication and spreadability, has the potential to build popular consensus that can translate into the real-world, creating a situation that goes against the commercial imperatives of sports advertisers and corporations.