Let’s talk about internet memes.

I like internet memes. I like using them, and I like seeing them spread, mutate and evolve. Above all, I like contemplating their effect on the human species.

The internet, and user-generated Web 2.0 content, in my opinion, is easily the best thing that humans have come up with since the printing press. Why?

The Printing Press Revolution.

The printing press greatly boosted the transmission of information. Knowledge could now be crystallized and distributed exponentially, which sped up a lot of things, and made entirely new things possible.

Prior to print, wisdom, gossip, and everything in between had to be transmitted word-of-mouth. Slow and tedious. Socrates only managed to speak to a few people- but it is through Plato’s writings that we learn of him and his ideas.

Perhaps his system of thought would have survived anyway through his pupils, but surely its influence would not be as profound- it might have been limited to a closed room of stuffy academics, and the “trickle-down” effect, if any, would have been sluggish.

(It does make you wonder what men like Socrates and Jesus might have achieved through social media.)

Immortality through Propagation.

It’s intoxicating to think that a person’s thoughts can still affect us intellectually and emotionally, thousands of years after her physical death. If your thoughts and knowledge are being embodied by the living in some way, shape or form- then you are very much alive!

By this logic, men like Jesus, Karl Marx and even Hitler are in some sense still alive- because they continue to influence our reality to this day. The waves crash on the shore, but we are all a part of the ocean.

I think this is at the root of the creative impulse- to leave behind a legacy that outlives our physical selves, be it through our children, or our contribution to the species at large. Art has survival value.

“I mean, they say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time.” – Banksy

Democratizing Knowledge.

Social media is even more democratic than books are- especially when it comes to content creation. This is good, as anything worth discussing is too important to be left to the ‘experts’. Everybody participates in social media. Knowledge is diffused, propagated, shared, curated, buttressed and rejuvenated.

If you spend some time on internet forums and checking out the comments on YouTube or 9gag, you might get a little depressed. It seems like people are getting stupider and more ignorant than ever before.

But this is a misplaced assessment. Ignorance has always existed, it’s just that it never had a chance to express itself in the public domain before. (Similar reasoning suggests that rising divorce rates are actually a good thing.)

Social Awareness Through Peer Pressure.

While annoying, I think it’s good that ignorance has a voice now. Now that it is out in the open, we have the opportunity to address it. How should it be addressed? It would be presumptuous of me to dictate!

But I think I think a sort of natural selection is taking place through an elegant combination of Likes, up-votes, RTs and reblogs. Good content gets spread and shared, while bad content fades into obscurity.

I don’t have any objective system of measurement (and I’d love to hear from anybody who might be involved in such an endeavor), but my intuition tells me that people (in general) have slowly grown to become more civil and polite on social media- even more intelligent and witty. Because such behaviour is rewarded and encouraged, we see more of it. The trend may become clearer with time.

Navigating the internet is quickly becoming a part of every youngster’s education, like it or not. It has become a microcosm of humanity at large. We come home from schools, cloistered in stuffy, obsolete constructs- and we connect to the internet- a magnificent beast of magic and splendor. (I’m speaking from my own dinosaur experience. These days you can use smartphones and laptops to surf 9gag while you’re in class.)

Social media will save the world.

Consider the following two ideas.

1: Peer pressure has always been one of the most powerful influencers of human behaviour.

2: Diversity boosts survivability, homogeneity diminishes it. (Any time you find yourself in a room full of people who all agree on everything, you know you’re in danger.)

The internet is pretty much the most diverse ‘place’ in human existence. People from all sorts of cultures, social classes (except the very poor, unfortunately), political leanings, religious backgrounds, you name it, you’ll find it. By bringing these people together, you force them to confront their differences. I’ve observed this in many different discussions in many different contexts all over the internet.

Sometimes it ends ugly. But at least there is no bloodshed. Often it results in greater understanding, with people learning to appreciate each other’s perspectives. Most wonderful of all is the realization that we are all the same on the inside. This is partly why memes are so popular- they are universal in their description of the human condition.

Social media lets us know that we are not alone, that there are hundreds of millions of people just like us- troubled, socially awkward, insecure, lost, confused and looking for love and meaning. And this togetherness transcends gender, ethnicity, language, religion and other petty differences.

Of course, we can’t just presume everything will be okay. We have to work towards it. We have to take the time and trouble to have meaningful and positive interactions with other people. You know the drill. We’re in the self-fulfilling prophecy zone.

Why do we no longer fear nuclear holocaust?

There was a time where we did. There was a time where there was an entire industry built around the imminent Doomsday- people built bunkers to hunker down in, and bought survival kits.

Somehow though, the idea that some escalating conflict will end in a flurry of nuclear warheads exploding all over the world has become rather absurd. How did this happen? I like Tor Norretranders’ answer, which I’ll paraphrase now.

There’s no single watershed moment, no eureka, no grand gestures. The Cold War well and truly ended when millions of people around the world slowly began to change their minds. This was a consequence of billions of conversations- at home, at work, at school, at the coffeeshop, on the radio, at the theater, in cinema.

The vast beast of swarm intelligence that is humanity slowly began to change its collective mind. It has happened several times before over the generations, and it is happening now, at a rapidly accelerating rate.

Conversations change the world.

Again, I don’t mean small talk- I mean intense engagement in any form, the kind that swallows you up and gets your heart racing. This sort of knowledge is embodied, not acquired. I believe the same thing happened in the quest to end slavery, and the quest for women’s rights, and now, the quest for equality for LGBT and folk with other genders and sexual preferences.

It’s the little things that add up. There have always been visionaries who are ahead of their time- many intellectuals in the past anticipate, for instance, that nationalism is an awkward middle-phase for humanity, and that socialism is inevitable. We have to carry each other, eventually. It’s not going to happen overnight, but it’s something to work towards.

The questions are- what are the baby steps we can take to get there? How do we seek common ground, compromise, mutually beneficial outcomes? There are many different answers, and here’s mine:

The tone is the message.

Be the change. Embody your knowledge. Make a difference within the context of your existing decision-making. I don’t think Kony 2012 is going to make a particularly significant difference in the world. And no, I don’t expect anybody to become some sort of crusader for any cause or charity just because they’re here. That is your personal decision to make. (That said, if you’d like to do something that makes a difference, I highly recommend kiva.org.)

But there is a sweet spot between the extremes of slacktivism and living a difficult-to-sustain life of selfless altruism. I firmly believe there is, and it boils down to one simple thing: how we treat each other. I believe that’s the only real change we need to focus on- that it’s simple (though not easy), actionable, achievable. It doesn’t cost anything to treat each other with respect and civility, especially when we disagree. We don’t need power or money to make a difference. It’s easy to say, but hard to embody: All we need is love.

PS: I know, “save the world” is a ridiculous notion. Who says the world needs saving? The world doesn’t need saving. I do. And perhaps you do, too. I can’t be certain, though I have a gut feeling that you might. And the only way to heal ourselves is to contribute beyond ourselves.