People who have been on any form of social media in the last month have most likely encountered this catchy meme gone viral. The basis of the meme is the ironic comparative perceptions of people, jobs, things or just about anything.
According to KnowYourMeme, a website dedicated to logging and tracing memes, the What People Think I Do / What I Really Do meme can be traced back to contemporary artist Garnet Hertz via his Facebook page where he posted this meme on February 2nd 2012.
The meme has since reached millions of people via Facebook with users creating their own versions of the meme.
The What People Think I Do / What I Really Do meme is a great example of the basic formula of an internet meme.
The process begins with the creation of one prototype meme. The meme would typically entertain or inform in a humorous manner and lead people who see the meme to create their own, mimicking the prototype but changing it in subtle ways. The basic structure remains in place, in this case, the blank formula of:
Users who create their own memes take this basic structure and create their own. The comparison here between genes and memes is obvious. The memes created after the original are mutations of the first much like a gene mutates to create a unique characteristic.
The What People think I Do / What I Really Do meme has really exploded, and it's cool to think it was created just 3 weeks ago. Here's a sample meme created for people like me.
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