According to the Oxford Dictionary, a meme is: "An image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by internet users, often with slight variations." But there is more to memes than just this definition. During an interview for an earlier article, Bored Panda spoke to stand-up comedian Evaldas Karosas. Here's what he had to say about memes: "A meme is like an inside joke for people that don’t know each other. Humor in general helps us connect with people on a deeper level, a meme serves the same purpose, but on a wider scale."

The word "meme" traces back to 1976. Richard Dawkins is said to have coined the term in his book, "The Selfish Gene." The way he described it was, "analogous to a 'phoneme,' the smallest unit of sound in speech, or a 'morpheme,' the smallest meaningful subunit of a word."

Memes have been around for a long time; people arguably have used them as long as they've had the symbolic system. Kirby Conrod, a professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College, told the New York Times that Dawkins merely came up with a name for something that has been around for a long time.

If you ever said 'fail' or 'winning', have a 'keep calm' t-shirt in your closet, or did an ice bucket challenge, you've participated in meme culture. You heard about it somewhere, you changed the concept to suit you and appropriated it for your own usage. These are actually the key things that make a meme a 'meme'.

A meme is sometimes not only for laughs. According to the 'Digital Trends' website, "Memes can also impart significantly more information than simple text alone. In the same way emojis have been used to convey complex moods or emotions, a meme can impart a complex idea, state of mind, or shared understanding far quicker than typing out and reading a written explanation of an idea."

Some memes are easier to understand than others. The easiest-to-grasp type of meme is called an 'image macro'. It is basically an expressive picture with a huge title below that sums up the meme. Others can be a little bit more difficult to understand, with references to a specific show, movie, etc.

So whether you consider yourself a meme lover or not, chances are, you've participated in meme culture. Continuing scrolling through this quirky collection of memes from X's page 'AAAAAAAAAA'. And if you're thirsty for more, check out our previous article about the page.