What’s in a meme? Fame and fortune, for one thing: Staking out your own little piece of the zeitgeist is cultural capital, which can quickly turn into the other kind of capital through book sales and speaking gigs. But for every “tipping point” that gets injected into everyday usage, dozens of others never hit a vein. Once the book tour’s over, they fade away. We searched the Nexis news database to trace a few linguistic lead balloons – number of appearances in print the year after their debut and in the most recent 12 months. (Tipping point? First year: 436; most recent 12 months: more than 1,000.) These words had their chance, but the smart mob has spoken.
– Lucas Graves
Smart mobs
A new kind of Net-fueled group intelligence. Howard Rheingold coined this expression in his 2002 book of the same name. The idea is still floating around in various forms (see page 170 in The Wisdom of Crowds), but the catchphrase never caught on.
Appearances in print
First 12 months: 118
Most recent 12 months: 31
Electronic herd
The daytraders and other bubble-era speculators whose sudden stampedes can send a small economy – say, Taiwan’s – back to the Middle Ages. Like other unwieldy adages by the columnist, Thomas Friedman, (“golden straitjacket,” anyone?), it hasn’t gotten much play beyond his own work.
Appearances in print
First 12 months: 48
Most recent 12 months: 4
Telecosm
A world of cheap and abundant bandwidth. In the ’90s, Techno-utopian George Gilder built a small industry around this vision, working it into a book title in 2000. But reality got in the way. He should’ve predicted cosmic bandwidth bills.
Appearances in print
First 12 months: 84
Most recent 12 months: 4
Turbo-capitalism
Free markets gone wilder than frat boys in Florida, with disastrous results. Edward Luttwak launched the word in 1995 and wrote a book about it in 1999, but it hasn’t taken root, even in the anti-globalization crowd. Wait … how do you say turbo in French?
Appearances in print
First 12 months: 54
Most recent 12 months: 15
Progress paradox
Why the West thinks the collective glass is half empty when, historically speaking, it overfloweth. In a 2003 book, Gregg Easterbrook blamed our gloomy disposition on factors like having too much choice. Critics said he should lose the rose-colored specs and take a look around.
Appearances in print
First 12 months: 99
Most recent 12 months: 17
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Requiem for a Meme
Choose Your Own Adventure Returns
