The Psychology of a Meme
Memes are moving markets and we need to pay attention.
The Pandemic Primed Us to View Contagious Ideas as Viruses
Throughout the past year, we’ve been primed with the viral spread of COVID-19 to such an extent that the gravity of the GameStop surge last week appeared less pronounced that it actually was. The viral frenzy thrived through a complicated web of cultural and social fibers, forming an abstract network of impassioned traders as it spread.
Daily dosage of exponential COVID-19 rates have caused us to subconsciously ascribe any contagious packet of information with the properties of a virus. Just like viruses ideas replicate, fuse, and even mutate.
The viral contagion of GameStop’s upward and downward ride is fascinating because we witnessed that memes can move markets. It was not only the spread of an idea, but the spread of behavior. While the community at r/wallstreetbets is hardly a monolith, members stretched their dollars and humor to hang on to strands of an abstract network that, together, experienced the rush of understanding the language, deciphering the slang, and reveling in self-deprecating humor.
