Meme

(via Wikipedia) Richard Dawkins coined the term meme, which first came into popular use with the publication of his book The Selfish Gene in 1976. A meme, as defined within memetic theory, comprises a theoretical unit of cultural information, the building block of cultural evolution or diffusion that propagates from one mind to another analogously to the way in which a gene propagates from one organism to another as a unit of genetic information and of biological evolution. Multiple memes may propagate as cooperative groups called memeplexes (meme complexes).

A short story written in 1876 by Mark Twain, A Literary Nightmare, describes his encounter with a jingle so 'catchy' that it plays over and over in his mind until he finally sings it out loud and infects others (also known as an earworm).

Daniel Dennett on YouTube

I liked this one.

We all tend to fall for a new meme in the gem + jewelry industry one way or the other. It's amazing, it works. It could be on new treatment (s), new synthetic (s), new gem deposit (s), new design (s), new trend (s) + the never-ending news + insider tips on prices, grades, qualities, artificial scarcity engineering, the list goes on. What makes it so depressing is the memetic infection that can have upon one's psyche, which substantially increases the likelihood of additional misjudgments.