The Dot-This Meme is the name given to a class of internet memes that have the property of being self-referential. The first Dot-This Meme meme was in fact this article, which refers to itself to give itself meaning and truth.
Properties of Dot-This Memes
Dot-This Memes have the following properties:
- They refer to themselves in order to give themselves definition and credibility.
- The self-referentialism is explicit, so the reader knows he/she is not being “hoaxed”, but is rather creating the truth of the meme through the act of reading it.
“Actualised” vs “in-the-wild” status
A Dot-This Meme is said to be “actualized” when it is given credibility as a meme by sources outside of and not associated with itself . For example, once a Dot-This Meme is linked to by an article discussing the meme and created by an independent source, it is said to be actualized.
Until a Dot-This Meme is actualized, it is referred to as being “in the wild” . Currently, the Dot-This Meme meme is in the wild.
Bragging rights
The first person/website that writes an article linking to a Dot-This Meme that is in the wild (and is thus responsible for actualizing the meme) is said to have “bragging rights” over the meme. That is to say, a person who actualizes a Dot-This Meme is able to publicly claim to have actualized the meme .
Naming
The naming of the Dot-This Meme is a geeky reference to the keyword “this”, which is used in a number of programming languages such as C++ and Java to return a reference to the current object. In Java, for example, one may write:
this.x = y;
to refer to a local copy of “x” where it may have an additional context.
Examples
An example of a Dot-This Meme is the Dot-This Meme meme, which is in fact this blog post. The reason the Dot-This Meme meme is a Dot-This Meme is because it defines itself and gives itself credibility. It also is up-front about its self-referentialism. So, it is both the meme and the meme’s definition simultaneously.
