Information goods are commodities that deliver utility to the consumer by providing them with consumable content, more often digitally than not.
A meme is any internet trend that has the basic structure of a reference to another piece of information, along with a personal take/twist added in by the creator. I believe that memes have become a big enough part of popular culture to be considered information goods.
The presence of the following aspects of informational goods in memes might help in delivering my point;
- Indestructibility– Memes are digital ‘art works’. they have no physical form like traditional manufactured goods, and are intangible. Hence this property applies, as one cannot really physically destroy a meme.
- Transmutability– Memes are extremely customisable and modifiable as they can be layered. They also follow a basic template format which further encourages personalisation. The more a personalised meme resonated with people, the wider an audience it reaches. There are several sub categories/divisions on meme hosting platforms like Reddit and 9Gag in order to cater to this transmutability. This also means that the inherit the flaw of loss of control over integrity of the original creator. Memes can be easily transformed from their original form, making it difficult for the original poster to control the integrity.
- Reproducibility– Unlike a software or other informational goods, the initial cost of making a meme is not usually high. It is almost negligible. However this property still applies as creating copies of that meme and reproducing it for distribution are virtually nil.
For memes to be considered Informational ‘Goods’, there needs to be some monetary value attached to their utility.
This is increasingly happening at a wider scale, now more than ever.
Memes, just like other forms of content, are being rapidly monetised with the help of platform hosts like Youtube, TikTok, Instagram etc. These platforms reward creators of these memes directly with financial incentives.
Another monetary value of memes is in their use as a marketing tool by corporations and political organisations et al, for promotional purposes. The use of memes has been known to have increase consumers’ interaction by 2-10 times (Forbes,2018), These organisations hire dedicated social media handlers to help them come up with on trend memes to make their promotions more relatable to the younger generation.
In conclusion, memes are a diverse format of content consumption which can be a source of entertainment, news and other information. They have some monetary value attached to them and possess the properties of information goods, This makes them, in my opinion at least, valid Informational Goods.
Very interesting post Utsav!
As you mentioned, memes have been growing in popularity besides just for entertaining purposes. We have been witnessing a rise in meme formats being used both in business/marketing and politics because of their relatable nature. The monetary value it has, and that you mentioned, is just the evidence that companies realize its value and that they intend to maintain that entertainment on their platform to keep their user base active.
It’s interesting to think what the future will look like for a generation who is being constantly impacted with memes and use it regularly as a form of communication. Humour has always been one of the best ways to connect with people and knowing how to leverage the use of memes correctly could be a very important factor to thrive in a professional career for how strange as that may sound.
Thank you for your comment Henrique! And yes as you pointed out, humour is a great way to reach out to and connect with people. I too, am curious to see how this will take shape in the future!