# Entropy and complexity unveil the landscape of memes evolution

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.12376 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.12376/

## Key facts

- Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 26 May 2021.

## Built on by (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [Investigating the diversity and stylization of contemporary user generated visual arts in the complexity entropy plane](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.10356/) (2024)
- [All Changes May Have Invariant Principles: Improving Ever-Shifting Harmful Meme Detection via Design Concept Reproduction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.04567/) (2026)
- [Texture Discrimination via Hilbert Curve Path Based Information Quantifiers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.15327/) (2024)
- [I Know What You Meme, Even If it Emerged Today: Understanding Evolving Memes through Open-World Knowledge Acquisition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.05316/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

On the Internet, information circulates fast and widely, and the form of content adapts to comply with users' cognitive abilities. Memes are an emerging aspect of the internet system of signification, and their visual schemes evolve by adapting to a heterogeneous context. A fundamental question is whether they present culturally and temporally transcendent characteristics in their organizing principles. In this work, we study the evolution of 2 million visual memes from Reddit over ten years, from 2011 to 2020, in terms of their statistical complexity and entropy. We find support for the hypothesis that memes are part of an emerging form of internet metalanguage: on one side, we observe an exponential growth with a doubling time of approximately 6 months; on the other side, the complexity of memes contents increases, allowing and adapting to represent social trends and attitudes.