The role of Memes in the communication process

Abstract

Memetics, as a scientific framework for cultural evolution, must be integrated into the communication process to remain viable. This paper explores whether communication is better explained through memes and whether memes act as autonomous agents. While communication can be understood without memetics, applying a memetic framework offers deeper heuristic insights into communicative phenomena. By examining concepts such as news, meaning, language, reading, listening, writing, silence, lateral thinking, and teaching, this paper demonstrates that memetic fields structure and reshape communication. Drawing from thought experiments and interdisciplinary references, it argues that memes actively reconstruct their environment, making them more than passive replicators. Additionally, the study extends McLuhan’s “medium is the message” thesis to social media, where user-generated submedia function as memetic ecosystems that redefine intersubjectivity. The analysis raises an evolutionary question: are humans the agents of memes, or are memes the true agents of cultural evolution? While full validation of memetic agency remains open, this paper advances a model in which memes influence, constrain, and direct human cognition in ways previously unexplored.