A Meme is Worth a Thousand Words: Universal Communication Through Memes

With the rise of the digital age has come about a new form of communicating concepts—the meme: repeatable, transferable information. The purpose of this project is to understand the inclusive nature of internet communication not restricted by barriers. This format plays with the boundaries to imagination, creating a new form of communication not relying on language, color, or shape, but the interchange of these within an established concept. Memes have created a universal, living form of expression irrelevant of culture, region, age, or language in which individuals cross normal borders of expression and communication. We attempt to define the modern meme through its philosophical etymology and its evolved application. We then examine how memes, based on this definition, can be used as a legitimate form of communication. With this project we propose that the meme has potential to have real world, expressive effects to cross barriers to communication.