Comments on: The trouble with memes… http://walt.lishost.org/2006/11/the-trouble-with-memes/ The library voice of the radical middle. Mon, 17 Jun 2013 04:23:34 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: walt http://walt.lishost.org/2006/11/the-trouble-with-memes/comment-page-1/#comment-23546 walt Wed, 29 Nov 2006 15:35:28 +0000 http://walt.lishost.org/?p=428#comment-23546 Jessamyn, it was cryptic for the reasons provided in the third paragraph. If the rest of the post was cryptic, well, I thought I had something to say about the difficulty of social science research (where the observer effect puts quantum mechanics to shame), and specifically the fact that you can’t study the speed of propagation of a content-bearing mechanism by using a mechanism with no content.

CW’s suggestion is actually quite good: The researcher would have had a more valid meme test by asking bloggers to write about why they like memes.

As I believe I said in another context, there just are going to be occasional blind items here, and they always come with the proviso that–as with all other posts–you’re perfectly free to treat them as vacuous. Won’t hurt my feelings.

]]> By: CW http://walt.lishost.org/2006/11/the-trouble-with-memes/comment-page-1/#comment-23519 CW Wed, 29 Nov 2006 04:04:14 +0000 http://walt.lishost.org/?p=428#comment-23519 Walt didn’t link to the meme itself: it’s at this blog.

]]> By: jessamyn http://walt.lishost.org/2006/11/the-trouble-with-memes/comment-page-1/#comment-23518 jessamyn Wed, 29 Nov 2006 03:30:46 +0000 http://walt.lishost.org/?p=428#comment-23518 well that was cryptic. Is there a link someplace that I missed?

]]> By: CW http://walt.lishost.org/2006/11/the-trouble-with-memes/comment-page-1/#comment-23517 CW Wed, 29 Nov 2006 02:59:39 +0000 http://walt.lishost.org/?p=428#comment-23517 Fair enough, Walt – I did think about the effectiveness of this study when I considered when I actually posted my response – I saw the meme at work but didn’t want to post during work hours, so I only ended up posting it several hours later. Which would of course have skewed it. (And it doesn’t take into account bloggers answering memes days, weeks, or months after they first saw the meme, because they saved it up for when they don’t have anything better to write about that day.) He could have made the meme more meme-like by asking bloggers to write about why they like memes, for instance ;)

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