In the beginning was the tribal campfire, where we all heard the same stories.
If that seems like an odd way to start an explanation of a digital meme, hang on for the ride!
For the first 100,000 years or so of human existence, your childhood friends became the friends of your adulthood and old age, if you were lucky to live that long. There were no separate work friends and home friends, parenting associates and golfing buddies.
The people in your tribe were all the people you knew. Strangers were rare and not particularly welcome. While there were surely taboos and secrets, modern ideas about privacy would have seemed as incomprehensible as string theory.
And everyone around your fire had heard the same things about you and about each other.
One Comment
Look, I’ve never been the one to get involved in stuff like this. You can search your inboxes for a long time without finding any sort of chain letter I’ve sent. I don’t ask people to send business cards to dying children and I certainly don’t ask people to join a pirate fight on Facebook.
I’ve relented though on the 25 Random things meme that is stampeding through Facebook right now. Mine are posted int the link.
http://www.wikinomics.com/blog/index.php/2009/02/05/the-25-random-things-meme/