The Infection Meme
We commonly refer to computer programs that spread and cause trouble in terms of diseases; we call them viruses and we say that a computer that has one is infected. Lots of things spread, though. Butter. Ideas. Economic downturns. Clouds of nerve gas. But there are a more limited number of things that spread between people.
Twitter had a problem today. Not just today but that’s when it seemed to come to a head. (If you don’t know Twitter, all you need to know is that
Twitter without Don't Click
people send very short messages that will be seen by their friends who “follow” their posts, or by anyone who looks at the stream of all posts. More on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter). This was both hilarious and disturbing. Hopefully that’s not a comment on life, the Internet, or Twitter itself.
What happened was that Twitter was hit by a piece of program code that used a simple social engineering trick to fool people into activating it, so it could reproduce. It showed a link that said “Don’t click this link.” Of course people did click the link, allowing the code to insert itself into their feed, where all their followers would see it – and passive-aggressively do what they knew they shouldn’t and replicate the link still farther.
Fortunately, there were no horrible consequences to this little game. It seems to have caused some extra traffic on Twitter (maybe a lot of extra traffic) and the good folks behind Twitter say they’ve now blocked it (see http://blog.twitter.com/2009/02/clickjacking-blocked.html. More information on ReadWriteWeb at http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/dont_click_no_really_dont_even.php).
There has been a less mischievious but also less funny thing spreading on Facebook lately, too (no, I’m not going to define Facebook too. If I have to stop and define everything, how long will it be before I wear out my parentheses?). It’s called 25 things. People post a note telling 25 things about themselves, then tag (as in “tag, you’re it!) 25 of their friends who are then supposed to do the same thing. Basically, it’s a chain letter (For the record, I don’t participate in chain letters. Ever).
Interestingly, though, a recent article in Slate (http://www.slate.com/id/2211068) described it as something else and actually tried to gather data on how it spread. The something else it was called, was a “meme.” A meme is basically an idea, usually one embedded in the culture, or skating across the top of one as in, “Where’s the beef?” Or, “We’re gonna need a bigger metaphor.” (Paraphrasing. Try Googling “Big shark” if you can’t place it.)
Unlike Twitter’s Don’t Click, 25 Things did not suddenly appear in its final form. It went through several phases, starting out as “16 random things about me” and morphing through several other forms over a period of several months before it finally caught fire. The Slate article includes an interesting graph that shows almost no instances of 25 Things for a couple months. Then, at the end of January, there is an enormous spike, which rapidly died off. One of the reasons for a die-off like that is saturation. Once you’ve already been hit something like 25 Things, you don’t care if someone tags you again. You’ve already paid your dues. The same is mostly true for Don’t Click. It’s not really very entertaining. Once you’ve clicked it, you know that clicking it again will not be particularly interesting.
In the Slate article, the changes in 25 things were likened to evolution and to the progress of disease. Both of these are weak, though the disease comparison is somewhat interesting, especially in light of Twitter’s infection today. A study published in the Lancet not too long ago (Emerging infections: a perpetual challenge) discussed how the progress of emerging diseases has remained remarkably similar for thousands of year. The authors studied historical records of the plague that decimated Athens in the 4th century BC, the Black Plague that pruned the population of Europe, Asia and possibly Africa in the 14th century, the Yellow Fever epidemic in the U.S. in the 18th century and several more.
They found a remarkably stable set of factors that contributed to the way these horribly destructive diseases spread. Those factors included travel, especially for trade. War and famine were also important factors as was, somewhat surprisingly, the weather. They also found that the lack of the will among public officials to enact really effective containment measures was significant, as was the way existing public health facilities, if any, were sometimes overwhelmed by the sheer number of victims.
Most of these factors have allegories on the Internet (except maybe the weather). But do they have any resemblance to the spread of ideas? 25 Things is an idea. It depends on people wanting to share with others. Don’t Click is the opposite. It insinuates itself into the system by way of trickery. If they are diseases, then 25 Things is like an STD while Don’t Click is more of a common cold.
I’m not sure what that would make, say, democracy. A major skin rash? One that people are willing to die for, though. While some other people will do almost anything to prevent it or undermine it. Maybe the disease thing only applies to little ideas. Open Source software is another idea that doesn’t quite fit the disease model. These ideas are more like animals, like an invading species that gets a toe hold in one small part of an ecosystem and spreads out from there.
The idea of reaching a great tipping point, or growth spike, has more to do with the increased population than with transitory infection. The big difference is that an infection can be cured but a macro-scale population of creatures will generally continue to grow. Right up until a big meteor hits and wipes out all life on the planet. That part is no fun at all.
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excellent stuff thanx