Meme and War of the Worlds

A meme, simplified, is a unit of social information, if the piece of information is good or useful it is passed on, it stands the test of time, if the piece of information is bad or irrelevant, it is thrown to the wayside. A modern re-appropriation of the term meme is a piece of online information (often an image macro or a video) that is passed from one user to another while constantly having elements changed but still retains its core idea. The War of the Worlds falls somewhere between these two definitions. Within the broadcast ideas were passed along and rash decisions were made to flee the city. In retrospect this leans towards the modern definition of meme, mainly because it is funny (to just me?) that thousands of people believed that aliens were attacking a city. It also falls within the modern definition of trolling, working someone up over the internet (through a technological barrier) and often causing them to act out. The original definition of meme is also met because vital information that seemed to be life or death was being passed on at an alarming rate to a huge amount of people that was so convincing that many acted on it.

So in conclusion Orson Wells is the greatest troll of all time.