Final answer:
Memes succeed as units of cultural transmission, spreading rapidly via social media due to their humor and relatability. They reflect and influence popular culture and can be complex enough to be compared to traditional forms of literature.
Step-by-step explanation:
Memes are successful because they encapsulate cultural values or ideas through images or videos that often use relatable humor or exaggeration to speak to a common human experience. The term meme originates from the Greek root mim, meaning “mime” or “mimic,” and combines with the English suffix -eme to signify a unit of cultural transmission or the cultural equivalent of a gene. Memes can be considered a form of literature as they convey messages and express emotions or thoughts, often featuring conventions like hyperbole and syntactic structures that add complexity to their meaning.
Memes thrive in the internet age, spread rapidly through social media platforms, and have become an integral part of popular culture, influencing and reflecting everyday life and societal norms. Just as inventions like the printing press or smartphones have radically changed cultures historically, memes contribute to cultural adaptation and the evolution of communication. They can hold layers of meaning akin to traditional forms of literature, such as the haiku, and allow for creative expression and parody, much like the proliferation of Mona Lisa memes has shown.