The Memetracker Project

If you’re not familiar with the concept of memes you should get that way. My favorite definition came from Susan Blackmore, a renowned memetics expert, who says that memes are essentially anything that are copied.

Anyway, check out the concepts of memetics; it’s pretty cool stuff, although I’m not sure I agree with one of her key premises, which says that language was developed not for the benefit of humans, but so that memes could spread more successfully. I disbelieve.

I digress. Today’s task is to introduce this “Memetracker” theme here on the site. When I happen to notice a particular meme I’m going to make a note of it here (if I remember).

So, as my first one: TEH

This is a misspelling of “THE” and it’s been in use for some time online. The interesting thing I’ve been noticing about it, however, is it’s use in elite Internet culture recently — specifically at Reddit and Digg. Here’s a comment from Reddit:

Oh yes I keep forgetting that teh muzlimz is out to get all of us!!!. LULZ. You funny!

I can’t help but wonder if this is linked directly to the now famous, “ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US.” This type of speech has now become something of a common, humorous way to sarcastically enthusiastic about something.

Anyway, that’s my first meme. Take notice if you see it somewhere.