Why we have memes

When the world is naked, what is fashion? It's the words we say, the phrases we shout. Ultimately fashion is about identity, ranking, and innovation.

New fashions emerge because someone who is someone found some way to dress differently and managed to not look so completely ridiculous that they started a trend. A new subgroup emerges based on it, a new set of identities. Some people wear it and some don't. Those who wear it are the right people, the ones who fit in (though strangely those who don't wear it also fit in, just not with the same group).

Where was I? Oh yes. Memes are internet fashion. Someone thought of something, maybe unintentionally (do you think over Chuck Norris intended to someday compete with Raptor Jesus and FSM?), and it worked; people picked it up and made it another identifier. Knowing Chuck Norris facts and telling them means you are in*. If you don't know the memes? You're out. You look at a conversation and you are confused because you don't even know the foundations of the conversation (I'm using conversation to mean everything from an actual conversation to a thread of nothing but memes).

Look up. See my subtitle? That's a meme, a small one, restricted to the WoW community, and not especially popular. It's an indicator that I'm not quite what I'm supposed to be. I suppose that means I'm the online equivalent of those people that get really weird piercings just so they can confuse you. We're all making statements and if they don't make sense, all the better.

Memes show that you know the right way to present yourself. I find it funny that clothes may be called fashion statements, but only in an imaginary world with no clothes are fashion statements actually statements.

*The Barrens