The History & Origin of Cat Memes: How Cats Have Changed the Internet and the World Furever.

Some say the internet runs on cat memes. Cats are the ubiquitous memes for all cultures. 

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The word “Meme” was coined by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (1976) to describe cultural elements, “tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches,” that are transmitted between individuals or groups through imitation. Dawkins proposed the term as an analogy between cultural transmission of ideas and values, and genetic transmission of physical traits.

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Dawkins’s genetic analogy works reasonably well for the slow processes of culture that precede the information age. The modern concept of virality, “the tendency of a piece of information to be circulated rapidly and widely,” is enabled by accelerating media-transfer technology. Social networks, micro-publishing platforms, and other online communities become the host organisms for a dizzying array of viral media.