Memes Rule Everything Around Me with Jamie Cohen, New and Digital Media Expert, Writer, Researcher, and Educator
The Most Important Thing
Check out Jamie’s podcast: Digital.Void and learn how memes influence our daily lives both in virtual and physical reality.
About Jamie Cohen
Jamie Cohen holds a PhD in Cultural and Media Studies with a specialization in memes and digital culture. Additionally, he founded a New Media degree in higher education, wrote a textbook on the subject and is the co-author of the first peer reviewed paper on Pepe the Frog. Jamie is the co-producer and co-host of the Digital Void Salon Series and Podcast found at digitalvoid.media
Episode Overview:
In this episode I had the pleasure of sitting down with new media expert, Jamie Cohen, to discuss the rising power of memes. Jamie brings so much knowledge across multiple disciplines. Memes are such an important subject today because they drive everything from stock market pumps to global geopolitical movements, yet few have taken the time to truly understand this phenomena. We explore “meme literacy,” the origin story of Pepe the Frog, DogeCoin, Trump, Kek, sensemaking and meditation.
My Favorite Quotes:
“Many YouTubers set their camera angle so that the audience is looking down on them to help the audience feel more important than the creator.”
“A good meme, a really good meme, a dank meme – a meme that requires extra knowledge – would be memes that are so removed from its original referent that you don’t know or have to think about its originator – that’s a good meme.”
“Everything is mediated”
“Humans are social objects”
“It is amazing when you think of those types of overwriting and where we are in present history; we’re so consumed with current events and media, that we forget this has all evolved over a long time.”
“History itself is still there, but access to that history has been overwritten… Often times the histories we know, are the histories that were given to us. Meme literacy is about exploring the side stories and the tangents that have happened.”
“These aren’t just irreverent shareable images: they are connected to everything around us.”
“Anyone can make memes, anyone can. Anyone can manifest it.”
“There is a very distinct difference between Left and Right memetic spaces: the Right does a very abrasive and extreme approach so when the lesser evil appears, you say, ‘well, it’s not as bad.’ Whereas the Left does it in their own way where they implant a dominant theme inside your mind even if it doesn’t effect you in any way – it becomes an existential qualifier.”
Episode Breakdown:
00:00 – What is a Meme
03:00 – Meme Literacy
7:00 – The History of the Pepe the Frog Meme
12:00 – Who controls memes?
17:00 – DogeCoin
23:00 – Where are memes stored in our brain?
29:00 – The Hero’s Journey
35:00 – Sensemaking
40:00 – Re-appropriating Symbols
45:00 – Trump, memes and politics
53:00 – the Singularity
1:00:00 – Meditation and virtual reality
1:03:00 – Transcendentalism and Romanticism
Episode Links:
Jamie’s Info
Jamie’s Academic Paper on Pepe the Frog
Jamie’s Forbes Article on Memes
Other Resources & References
Richard Dawkins: The Selfish Gene
Feels Good Man Documentary Trailer
Pareidolia – see faces in inanimate objects
Joseph Campbell – the Hero’s Journey
AntiSocial: How Online Extremists Broke America by Andrew Marantz
Hypernormalisation a documentary by Adam Curtis
Nick Bostrom on the Singularity
Marc’s Info:
Marc Weinstein, host of the Look Up! Podcast is a public speaker for corporations, universities, and conferences. Click here to view past talks and to book Marc
