A trajetória oculta do meme: ensaio sobre o contágio no mundo digital

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the construction of an anthropology of the modern, that is, to the study of the value system of Western societies. This study was proposed by Bruno Latour (2019), in order to conduct a collective research about the modes of existence, mediators of reality, from the Actor-Network Theory, according to which, the social should be explained through specific associations that make up the act of conversation; it is about elementary conditions that, before they are aggregated in the composition of the discourse, precede all definitions of institutions, subject or group. From this perspective, the Meme's mode of existence was studied, as well as how it fits into these associations. A return was made to the elementary conditions of discourse and a fragmentation into what this thesis calls memetic speech: it was described that such speech is articulated to mediate contagion at a distance between physically distant people (hiatus); flexing scripts through early conflict resolution (trajectory); and objectifying itself when it offers a pathway of beliefs and desires to be emulated (condition of happiness); being a ritualized micro process with cults to modern fe(i)tich gods called likes, favorable comments, and reposts (beings of the Meme); resulting in increased social quantity (alteration in reality). Thus, this thesis states that the Meme is a Network of the homogeneous type, whose fruition, necessarily in association with other Networks of the same type, culminates in contagion, in the psychic cohesion of a group, a situation, or a social event.