In 1979, British biologist Richard Dawkins coined the term meme which was short for memetic. He defined it as cultural information spread through imitation. The word stems from the Greek mimema, meaning “to copy” (hence mime, miming, mimicry— the whole mim family). Being a biologist, Dawkins thought of memes as cultural equivalents of genes: they replicate, mutate, and evolve through natural selection. So, memes are the DNA of our culture.

Over time, though, memes evolved a sense of humour. For something to qualify as a meme now, it has to be funny. But the essence remains the same: memes still transmit culture. They’re like carrier pigeons, delivering tiny fragments of shared meaning. So it does disappoint me a little bit to see how Gen Alpha’s memes carry no information at all.