Seth Godin: the Patron Saint of 'Bemes'

The idea of the beme is rapidly beming throughout the planet.  As Wikipedia defines it:

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; a memes is linear, a beme is nonlinear; a meme moves in a jet stream, a beme has a splatter pattern; a meme is viral, a beme is pandemic.

As I explain the roots of the concept, including the works of Richard Dawkins, of course, and Marshall McLuhan, I can't help but admire Seth Godin's thoughts on viral ideas from 2005:

No one "gets" an idea unless:
a. the first impression demands further investigation
b. they already understand the foundation ideas necessary to get the new idea
c. they trust or respect the sender enough to invest the time

This explains why online ideas spread so fast but why they're often shallow. Nietzsche is hard to understand and risky to spread, so it moves slowly among people willing to invest the time. Numa Numa, on the other hand, spread like a toxic waste spill because it was so transparent, reasonably funny and easy to share.

Notice that ideas never spread because they are important to the originator.

Notice too that a key dynamic in the spread of the idea is the capsule that contains it. If it's easy to swallow, tempting and complete, it's a lot more likely to get a good start.

Seth goes on to emphasize the visual aspect of a viral idea cum beme:

A key element in the spread of ideas is their visual element. iPods and visual styles spread faster in the real world than ephemeral concepts. Pictures and short jokes spread faster online because the investment necessary to figure out if they're worth spreading is so tiny.

Makes me wonder if the beme needs an icon.  Maybe a Mooninite man?  Or how about a close-cropped Britney Spears looking like Seth Godin?

Kudos to David Galbraith for creating the clever juxtaposition of Mooninite and icon.