Meming

Description
The pattern Meming is very similar to the real world pattern of trends. The main difference is that Meming is not as time-dependent as trends and usually more less specified and generally does not fulfill any goal, other than being amusing.

Examples
The Cartoon Characters as Facebook Profile Pictures is one type of social media meme. By word of mouth marketing, Facebook users where asked to change their profile picture to that of their childhood super hero favorite.

Pros and Cons
This pattern is wanted on sites that are not whole-hearty serious. Even on sites that are somewhat serious as for example wikipedia or linkedin, some Meming may be wanted. Meming is generally wanted because of its ability to strengthen the bonding within the site, as well as a welcome change from the otherwise possible stalemate boredom of the site. Furthermore, Meming lets the users be creative in creating their own memes, within the boundaries of the site, and feel that they can affect the community and are part of it.

Relations
Meming is related to content-creating patters, mainly Crafting Content, Attention Seeking, Posting As Time Killing, Co-Creating Content, and Stealing Content but also to patterns such as Showing Off and Low Effort Reaction.

The pattern is mainly countered by Maintaining A Facade (seeing Meming as 'uncool'), Maintaining A Reputation (seeing Meming as spam) and Self Censoring.

Contributors
Christian Broniewicz