The Resurgence of the Ancient Doge Meme and its Implications on the Internet’s Life Cycle.
Memes have become an important part of online culture, with impacts that can affect the real world. When Elon Musk briefly replaced the Twitter bird logo with the face of the “doge” meme in early April, the value of dogecoin fluctuated by billions of dollars. Dogecoin, which was created as a “joke coin” in 2013, is now the seventh largest cryptocurrency in the world. Memes, once regarded as inconsequential byproducts of online culture, are now recognized as having a real impact on public discourse. They provide a historical record of digital culture and the detritus of the cyber age. While some memes are short-lived, others have impressive longevity and adaptability, such as doge and Pepe the Frog, as they tap into the anthropomorphic nature of the icon.
Richard Dawkins coined the term “meme” in his book The Selfish Gene in 1976, referring to cultural units such as tunes and catchphrases. Dawkins utilized the concept of meme propagation as similar to gene propagation in the gene pool. Memes allow individuals to communicate and to be heard in the digital community. The desire for communication is one of the most basic human drives. Mark Deuze, media theorist, sees similarities with cave paintings in memes – both reflect communication of what is important to a community. Memes hold valuable cultural information and document how material moves around, grows, dies, and becomes born again. They archive early communication on digital platforms and will be appreciated in the future as a complex web of communication built by humans.
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