Memes are becoming a growing part our everyday life and popular culture, especially online. Many us know memes the pictures and photographs that go viral social media sites. People use them to make jokes or social and political observations. However, biologist and author Richard Dawkins, the originator the word 'meme', is unhappy how the Internet has defined a meme as a "picture with words". Mr Dawkins coined the term 'meme' his 1976 book 'The Selfish Gene'. He said memes are ideas that spread brain to brain and are replicated many times, much like genes. He told the BBC: "I'm not going to use the term Internet meme to refer to a picture writing it."
Memes have infused our culture the extent that universities now offer degree courses them. America's Northwestern University unveiled its Meme Studies course back 2011. Britain's Sky News says memes have helped to make politics more accessible to young people. One Twitter user told a Sky journalist that: "Memes helped people understand more complex ideas, and that having politics framed a different way makes it more digestible." This was obvious with how memes became a key part how people expressed their views the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The vice.com website said: "Memes now have as much power, influence and reach as the propaganda posters yesteryear."
