'Bemes' Are Defining the Life of the Blogosphere

Michael Malone's ABC News column on Thursday mentioning "bemes" has certainly produced a lot of interest.  Originally, I coined the word beme to describe a meme propagated by blogs and bloggers.  Now I can see that the turn of phrase has a much bigger potential to capture the rapidly-moving cultural touchstones of the Bubble Generation.

As you may know, "meme" was first defined by Richard Dawkins in 1976 as "a unit of cultural information" spread from one mind to another.  In other words, a viral idea that eventually becomes common knowledge.

Fast forward three decades, and it seems to me that technology has turbo-charged the meme process.  Looking for the juste mot to describe a "purposeful" meme fed into the vast human network of the Internet, either by blog, email, video, phonecast, social media or other viral means, beme seems to fit the bill. 

A beme is a turbo-charged meme made possible entirely by the existence of the network effect.  A beme can be impactful because it is lurid--a photo of a panty-less Britney Spears, or humorous--a whimisical video of the band OKGO on treadmills, or gut-wrenching--the sad tirade by comedian Michael Richards.  A beme can cement an idea with the public in a way that cannot be legislated or regulated.  No legal effort by Cisco to enforce a trademark, for example, will make the public unlearn that Apple produces the iPhone.

• A meme is old media, a beme is new media.
• A meme takes off by accident, a beme by design.
• A meme can take years to surface, a beme hours.

Moreover, people who create and spread bemes (let's call them "bemerz")--people like Shel Israel, Robert Scoble, Glenn Reynolds, Doc Searls, Dan Gillmor, John Battelle, Duncan Riley, Aaron Brazell, Jason Calacanis and Dave Sifry are today's cultural icons.  When they beme to the world, they can spread an idea faster than any people in history.

That's because a beme moves a billion times faster than a meme ever could.  That's the power of citizen-driven media networks.  Do the math.  There are nearly 60 million blogs, 600 million email users and many millions of social media citizens.  Because we all can be bemerz, powerful enough to spread any idea to anyone, a beme today can be created, promulgated and soldered into social conscioussness in a fraction of the time it took memes to spread 30 years ago when Professor Dawkins first made the observation. 

Consider yourself a part of this grand experiment.  Just how fast can this beme circle the globe, enter Wikipedia as a new term and leap off out of the blogosphere and into the mainstream?  How fast can you type?

Comments

[Aaron Brazell]

The other folks I shouldn't be mentioned in the same paragraph with. But thanks. :)

[Michael Martine]

You say that bemes are purposefully created, yet every example you cite happened by accident. These things cannot be forced, as every advertising agency who tries to "make" a viral campaign discovers to their dismay (even Cartoon Network and their ATHF "mooninite" campaign--it only got noticed and went viral because of the accidental misidentification of the signs as bombs). The nature of the media is irrelevant to a meme, so long as it transmits the idea in a survivable fashion which is easy to propagate. Originally, that was word-of-mouth, and... it still is. Word-of-mouth may happen via email or IM or blogs, and they may spread faster, but it's still word-of-mouth.

Nice try, though, trying to make up your own beme by creating the word itself. But for the reasons I've just given, your attempt at forcing a meme will fail just like everyone else's engineered attempts. I'm not being snarky or trying to give you attitude, but I am being frank and telling you the truth as I see it.

[tim finin]

While it's hard to force them, it can be done. The move "The Blair Witch Project" is an example of a product promoted by a manufactured word of mouth campaign. Of course, this may be one of the exceptions that prove the rule. I suspect, however, that lots of people are making a living trying to do this (and promising to do this) for clients for a fee.

[Jakob Lodwick]

Tom,

You define a meme as "a viral idea that eventually becomes common knowledge." This is incorrect; popularity has nothing to do with whether it's a meme. An in-joke shared between two roommates is still a meme.

Another problem is pointed out by Michael Martine in his comment: "The nature of the media is irrelevant to a meme, so long as it transmits the idea in a survivable fashion which is easy to propagate." Tom, what makes bemes qualitatively different than nemes (newspaper memes), remes (radio memes), or wemes (memes transmitted through normal, non-blog websites)?

Tim Finin is correct in his contradiction of Martine's claims that successful memes "cannot be forced". Another example is "Osama Team Hunger Force", a video CollegeHumor.com made parodying the ATHF scare. This video was a deliberate attempt to create a viral vid, and was moderately successful, finding itself on BoingBoing.net and hundreds of other blogs.

[Miha]

Sorry, but this seems to me a wery week concept.

Memes as a term and de facto as a unit of cultural transition have been used by media activists for a long time.

Your statements: * A meme is old media, a beme is new media.
* A meme takes off by accident, a beme by design.
* A meme can take years to surface, a beme hours.

are simply not true. Memes DO take off by design too.
And who says that Bemes are not memes- except with a new name?

[Jamie Pitts]

Your attempt to re-cast a meta-meme for your own purposes is nonsense for all of the reasons cited above, but still has a lot of potential to infect the blogosphere.

Unfortunately, you have infected mass media with this concept too early. You also advocate generating a Wikipedia article on your newly coined term, which is a major faux pas on your part. This will no doubt increase immunity in the very community that you're trying to infect.

I'm going to counter your attempt as much as I can by making fun of you. Your "beamerz" term will be especially useful in generating a memetic antibody :)

[Jose Castillo]

Tom-

While I like the idea of a "beme" and I do believe there is need to place a new moniker on new media terms of the day, it feels a little forced. Just my personal opinion but the natural organic meme's that seem to run wild are almost never fully calculated - yes there are examples of well thought out stories that spread but the whole concept of a meme or beme is that you let it go to have others spread it. Therefore losing control over something you initially totally controlled. Great word and excellent thoughts - I hope the conversation leads to something cool. (it may all ready have done its job)

thnx

jose

[tom foremski]

Surely, a meme is always a meme regardless of its mode of transport...

[Uwe Klein]

Hi, I agree in general with the comments. It´s the context to which a meme is falling whether it will spread faster or not. But there is another thing: we have a gap in memetic research which has to be filled. The current assumption is: a meme is by itself a media prone particle. I study on how viruses can be used as meme carriers. My assumption is, that memes from their origin are biological substances transferred under certain circumstances to new carriers. This is why spreading is different fast or slow. What the whole world is talking about all the time instead are rather demes than memes: distance exchange memes, which are memes ready made to blow them through any kind of communication contact independent of direct human presence. How do you like that...?
uwe

[US Gold Coins]

Very interesting article. As a blogger, I find the meme to be a fascinating concept.