Joy to the memious
A friend of mine, Gorm Nykreim, has coined a word to describe the emotion of wanting to share memes with friends and others. The word is "Memious". He based the word on another word in English, "Envious". When you feel envy, you want what other people have. When you feel memy, you want to share the ideas that you have come across. The more that I think about this, though, the more I think that memiousness is far more than just sharing ideas. To be memious is about the core desire to share in general, and that emotion is one that can be harnessed to build stronger relationships of all sorts, from the family unit to the nation.
If you are on any social media at all, it won't take long to notice that feeling of memy. You see some adorable cat video, and you think to yourself, "I have to share this with my friend Kate!" Or maybe you have seen some article about Occupy or urban farming or hacking Android devices to get rid of evil spyware placed there by your telco, and hit +1 and then share it. That's a memious action.
Gift giving can be memious, too. Sure, at this time of year, a lot of the gifts you may be buying are gifts of requirement. You have a list of people you must buy for, and you shop around until you find something you hope they'll like. But what about those people on your list that you have trouble buying for because there are so many things you'd like to share with them? And what about those gifts that you create with your own hands that you are really proud of, that scarf you knitted for your sister or that LED-lit glass coffee table you built for your hubby? There's an idea there, and also a thing, and you want to share it. You can't wait for them to see it and to enjoy what you enjoyed about it.
Ever since I read Gorm's definition of memy, I've been thinking a lot about my tendencies toward this emotion and how they shape my life. I've always thought that this was just part of being a teacher at heart. Surely, that's part of it for me. But, that's not the end of it. There's so much that I enjoy sharing that isn't about teaching.
When I see something about ethical investing, I like to share it with my dad, the financial planner. I'm not teaching him about ethical investing. I'm sharing an instance of it. I do it because I think that there will be some benefit in it for him and maybe for his clients. Even if that particular instance isn't useful to him, it may indirectly lead him to other, more appropriate instances of the meme. I feel a sense of accomplishment when something that I've shared with him creates something positive for him, whether that's a financial gain or just simple joy.
When our memy reaches beyond our first degree relations, we have sharing that can effect a whole community. Take the word "memy", for example. I'm not just sharing it with friends and family, I'm writing a blog about it. Now if you think about this idea and hone it further, start to use the word, and it catches on as a value and not just an idea, then together we've made a change in society. Sure, it's not a change that happens in a bubble. The reason that the idea of memy could even catch on as a value is because we're already seeing it happen. We see memy on Facebook and Diaspora. We see memy at work in the Occupy encampments and other protest actions. It's all around us. But now we have a word for it. Now we can build a value system around memy.
If Envy is one of the seven deadly sins, then I think that Memy should really be a cardinal virtue. It's a move away from hoarding and towards sharing. It represents a belief that we can increase goodness just by sharing what is good. And while I recognize the finite nature of physical resources, I still believe that memy can power a physical-world model as well as the idea-world model.
I'll write more about that soon, but for now, think about it. Talk about it. Share the idea, and please, tell me what makes you memious.
