Pre-reading task: A) Can you mention three things you have found interesting on the internet lately?

Share in pairs. Speed read task: Read the text quickly: What are some memes mentioned in the text? Intensive reading: 1 Why did the couple include the squirrel in their photo? __________________________________________________________________ 2 The text states, A new internet meme is born. Mention at least three reasons how this happened? __________________________________________________________________ 3 Why should Dawkins desire that the word meme sound like gene? __________________________________________________________________ 4 N.K. Humphrey concludes that, memes should be regarded as living structures, not just metaphorically but technically. Explain in your own words what he means by this. __________________________________________________________________ 5 - A fruitful pandemic is an oxymoron. Oxymorons include phrases such as a crying clown and lead balloon. What image do you think the writer wants to create by using fruitful pandemic in the article? __________________________________________________________________

6 The writer attempts to be humours when describing Chuck Norris and the Technoviking. How does the writer try to achieve this? __________________________________________________________________ 7 Why do memes spread like wild fire? __________________________________________________________________ 8-

Reading Text What is a meme? You get to school or your workplace and everyone is talking about the new video which was posted on Youtube. It is about a couple who are on holiday near a lake. The setting is idyllic. Mountains are in the background. Trees line their base. The sky is a deep cerulean. It is a picture perfect moment. You can envisage how the shot happened. The man fiddles with the camera and sets it on a ten second delay. He places it on a level stable surface, presses the shoot button and runs frantically next to his partner. He fumbles a bit with his jacket in an attempt to straighten the creases, puts on the mandatory camera smile and places his hand round his companion. The beeping emanating from the camera speeds up. The photo is about to be taken but a fraction of a second before the familiar clicking sound is heard, a squirrel pops up in front of the camera and is immortalised together with them. A squirrel has just photo bombed their snapshot. Instead of deleting the photo, the couple post it online on a socialising website. They believe it is a quirky moment to be shared with friends. Instantly, like wild fire, the photo spreads around the globe, from Malta to Japan. Everyone in your social sphere is talking about it. A friend tells you that you can even find websites which will squirrelise your photo and automatically post a reproduction of the squirrel onto a photo of your choice. A new internet meme is born. What is a meme? Richard Dawkins, the zoologist, defined a meme in his 1976 book about evolution, The Selfish Gene, as a unit of cultural transmission. Dawkins coined the word from Mimeme, which has a Greek root, but he wanted a monosyllable that sounded a bit like gene so he abbreviated mimeme to meme. In the book, Dawkins claims that living beings are merely containers for genes, whose sole telos is to replicate. In multiplying, genes and in turn the DNA molecule ensures its

survival. Dawkins envisions a new kind of replicator which has emerged on planet Earth. This is the meme. Like genes and transmittable diseases, a meme can replicate and spread. What the gene is to biology, the meme is to culture. It is a reproducible idea and is the basic unit of the spreading of culture. Dawkins writes that examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches. Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperms or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation. If a scientist hears, or reads about, a good idea, he passed it on to his colleagues and students. He mentions it in his articles and his lectures. If the idea catches on, it can be said to propagate itself, spreading from brain to brain. Dawkins colleague N.K. Humphrey surmises that memes should be regarded as living structures, not just metaphorically but technically. When you plant a fertile meme in a persons mind you literally parasitise that brain, turning it into a vehicle for the meme's propagation in just the way that a virus may parasitise the genetic mechanism of a host cell. Where does the internet come to play? The internet has facilitated the transmission of ideas across the globe. It is a fruitful pandemic. Internet memes come in a myriad of forms. It may be an image, hyperlink, video, picture, website or a hashtag. It may be a word or phrase, including intentionally misspelling words such as more to moar and the to teh. Famous people who have been transformed into a meme include Chuck Norris. Internet lore dictates he is invincible, indestructible and incredible. Allegedly the Technoviking, a blond, shirtless, ripped, hirsute Nordic anonymous gentleman is the only entity which can stop Norris. Less intimidating are Derp and Derpa, two stick figures with highly expressive facial features. Their presence on the net is ubiquitous. Who transmits memes? The majority of internet memes are spread by adolescents and adultoscents*. These two demographics relish communication. In turn commercial entities have exploited this to their advantage creating adverts designed for the internet with the hope that their adverts go viral. The advantage of internet advertising is its cost effectiveness when compared to adverts presented during prime time on TV. The push by companies to reduce costs and maximise profits together with humanitys instinctual need to communicate, will ensure that internet memes will be around for a long time to come.

*An adultoscent is a merging of the words adult and adolescent. It suggests that the adolescent age is becoming protracted into adulthood in Western society.

Language Work: Vocabulary Give the meaning of the following words/phrases as found in the text. The words have been underlined for your convenience. 1) a deep cerulean ____________________________ _ 2) The man fiddles with the ____________________________ camera _ 3) The beeping emanating ____________________________ _ 4) Where does the internet come ____________________________ to play? _ 5) Photo bombed ____________________________ _ 6) It spreads like wild fire ____________________________ _ 7) Whose sole telos ____________________________ _ 8) Memes propagate ____________________________ _ 9) Come to play ____________________________ _ 10) The internet has facilitated ____________________________ _ 11) Hirsute ____________________________ _ 12) Ubiquitous ____________________________ _ 13) To relish communication 14) To exploit to your advantage ____________________________ _

FORMATTING Question 5 / 8 might require another line Underline the words in text which they have to look for in relation to the vocab exercise

Answers to Questions Warmer Intentionally misspelled words Famous people Derp and Derpa Questions A. Read the text quickly and answer the following: 1 Richard Dawkins 2 They replicate by storing themselves in a humans body and then propagate B. Now read the text in detail and answer the following: 1. The couple did not include the squirrel in the photo, it happened to be captured by the camera by accident 2. The squirrel invading the photo made it funny, / 2. The owner/photographer posting the photo on the internet. / 3. People liking the photo and the squirrel incident thus turning it into a meme. 3. Genes replicate and spread. Dawkins wanted his memes to do exactly the same thing. 4. He means that memes do not only propagate conceptually but also physically. They instil themselves in the carriers brain and fertilise just as a virus or disease would. 5. What he means is that a pandemic usually has negative connotations to illness and the spread of disease. On the other hand he is speaking about a virtual phenomenon which is incredible to watch grow and disseminate around the world. 6. He does this by describing them both as impossible characters, caricatures of real human beings. Their image of imposing invincible, blonde characters make them, per se, ridiculous. 7. These memes are usually spread by select parts of society mainly adolescents and adultoscents who spend most of their tiem on the internet and live through the circulation of internet phenomena such as memes. 8. Commercial entities have realised that using memes to advertise whatever they want to sell online is more worthwhile and cheaper than other forms of media. Hence its cost effectiveness. Vocabulary 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Blue Plays around Being produced by Attacked Becomes popular Goal

7. Spread 8. Is involved 9. Made easier 10.Hairy 11.Omnipresent 12.Enjoy 13.Use/abuse