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Presentation for the live Elluminate session for week two of the BGI (Bainbridge Graduate Institute) course "Using the Social Web for Social Change". Topic "Social Video, Viral Media & Memetics" including memes, memetics, idea virus, memeplex, cultural inheritance, selfish memes, thought contagion
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Using theSocial Web
for Social Change
Week 6 – Elluminate Session EOctober 26, 2009: 7pm PT
Week 5: Social Video, Viral Media & Memetics
Opening CircleReview Last WeekUpcoming WeekUpcoming Social Change ProjectsMemes & MemeticsSpecial Guest: Franklin Lopez
Agenda
Opening CircleType a sentence into the chat window about:
how you are feeling tonightsomething about your BGI Beat blogsomething you learned this weeka concern
Week 5: Social Video, Viral Media & Memetics
Last Week’s Assignments
Decide if you are going to have a dedicated domain for your blog
Purchase your domain at GoogleAdd Analytics to Your Blog
Google AnalyticsFeedburner
Identify Your Blog’s PeersFind at least 3 blogs with related subjects and/or keywordsSubscribe, participate, and commentUnderstand their audience
Post1 thoughtful post, 1 commentary post, 1 link post, plus 2 comments in other blogs
Readings & Media
Medium number of readings this weekTopics are
Social VideoMemes & MemeticsParticipation & Engagement in Video
This Week’s Assignments
Post1 thoughtful post, 1 commentary post, 1 link post, plus 2 comments in other blogs
Find VideoIdentify and bookmark 3 videos that exemplify social changeAt least one ideally should be in your BGI Beat
Create Video~30 seconds minimumEither a video intro to your blogA video intro to your LinkedIn profileA video response to a video on YouTubeCreativity encouragedVideo may be private, but this is discouraged
Social Change Projects
Learning to change the world by doing
Time Expections & Grades
Remember: “Perfection is the enemy of the good” & “Ship early and often”Total 24-32 hours per person40% of your grade for class
20% is completion10% is team10% is quality
Your team members are going to depend on you in November. If you fail them, I will fail you
Types of Social Change Projects
Social Video2-3 minutes of scripted, edited video
EventClimage Change Day“Lunch for Good”
Educational Resourceweb pageteacher tools
Open to your imagination
Memes & Memetics
Definition of Meme
“A unit of cultural inheritance”
A meme consists of any idea or behavior that can pass from one person to another by learning or imitation
Typically propagated by symbolic communication or language, but not limited to that
Propagation through contagion, analogous to a virus
Examples of Memes
Jokes &Gossip
Gestures
Beliefs
Practices
Examples of Memes
Fashion Beauty
Music Phrases
Give me Liberty or Give me Death!
Internet Memes
Richard Dawkins
The concept of the meme was first used by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins
Became popular with the publication of his book “The Selfish Gene” in 1976
Memeplexes
Groups of memes can work symbiotically together giving rise to memeplexes
They exist together because they benefit each other
Memeplexes
Ideologies Technologies
Religions Philosophies
Natural Selection
Memes have other analogies to Charles Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection
replication & inheritancevariation & mutationcompetition & selection
genes compete in the “gene pool” through natural selection giving rise to evolutionmemes survive in the “belief pool” through a similar selection process
Memetics
“The study of of the transmission of ideas”Applying tools from genetics to understanding ideas is usefulThere is not a scientific consensus on memes
some say “a nice metaphor”some say “denies free will”same say “anti-religious”
But it does explain some things that don’t fit in evolutionary psychology
Selfish Memes
Evolution (genetic or memetic) is not about the individual, but the success of replication
Thus like genes, they do not have to be beneficial to their hosts
The only thing a meme “cares” about is propagation
Infectious Memes
“When you plant a fertile meme in my mind you literally parasitize my brain, turning it into a vehicle for the meme’s propagation in just the way that a virus may parasitize the genetic mechanism of a host cell.”— N.K. Humphrey, The Selfish Gene
Meme Propogation
Some memes propagate by being effective or useful
languageagriculturescientific method
However, memes also propagate through features and weakness of the human psyche
emotional appealneed for hopebandwagon
Memes as Viruses
If memes can be compared to viruses, they also are analogous to their viruses properties of infection and for immunity
infection
proselytization, fear, indoctrination
immunity
doctrine, contempt for knowledge, dogmatism, emotional hijacking
Thoughts Contagion
Some thought about transmission(See Wikipedia on Meme)
Quality of parenthoodEfficacy of parenthoodProselyticPreservationalAdversativeCognitiveMotivational
Memes as a Meme
The idea of memes itself is a meme.
You are now infected
Questions? Feedback?
Next: Elluminate Session FMotivations for Participation & Change
November 2, 2009: 7pm PT