Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Meme Madness
Gleick really interested me with these readings, especially the chapter on memes. He said that it made people feel uncomfortable to be "vehicles" for ideas because it makes them feel like they aren't in control of their thoughts. I read an article by philosopher Sam Harris in which he explains why he doesn't believe in free will. He argues that though we can recognize our thoughts, we are powerless over what thoughts occur to us and lead us to make the actions that we do. Gleick quotes Mozart at one point: "In the night when I cannot sleep, thoughts crowd into my mind... Whence and how do they come? I do not know and I have nothing to do with it." Once this idea is accepted, many more emerge. Where do our thoughts and ideas come from? What really is an idea and what is its nature? These are questions we can not yet answer, but it is certain that an idea, or a meme, is something, and it can be a lot more powerful than any individual or group.
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I'm always surprised by the amount of knowledge the middle schoolers I taught had on many subjects. Sometimes they just clicked with what they had to say and a lot of them had the same ideas. When I asked them about where they found the knowledge, they told me that they found it all via memes on the internet. Memes are short bits of information that travel across the internet in a catchy way. The ideas are always simple and easy to understand and students were basing many of their beliefs and ideas off of these memes. While this isn't a bad thing, some memes on the internet are not always credible and the lack extra information. However, it's through these memes and ideas that students begin to form their own ideas and opinions whether they mean to or not.
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