Bernie Sanders' Mittens and the World of Viral Memes with Don Caldwell Know Your Meme

<p><strong>Don Caldwell</strong> is Editor-in-Chief of Know Your Meme and an expert on the growth of memes, GIFs, viral videos, and other digital content that is widely shared and hits a responsive chord.  Don talks about tracking Internet culture, the history of the word meme, the life cycle of memes, and how social media fuels the speed of how fast and far memes spread.</p> <p>While predicting which memes will go viral is difficult, Don had a feeling that the image of Bernie Sanders wearing his mittens at the Biden Inauguration was going to be a winner. He points out that memes need to use strong symbolism in order to grab attention to elicit an emotional response and encourage sharing. </p> <p>He also reminds us that memes have a life of their own and can not be tamed once unleashed on the internet. He emphasizes that candidates and advocates need to really understand internet culture in order to create a successful meme.</p> <p>@KnowYourMeme @DonCald #memes #BerniesMittens</p> <p><strong><a title="Know Your Meme" href="http://KnowYourMeme.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">KnowYourMeme.com</a></strong></p> <p><a title="Know Your Meme" href="http://KnowYourMeme.com" target= "_blank" rel="noopener"><img style= "display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src= "https://assets.libsyn.com/secure/show/69800/know_your_meme.png" alt="Know Your Meme" width="169" height="169" /> </a></p> <p><a title="Know Your Meme" href="http://KnowYourMeme.com" target= "_blank" rel="noopener"><img style= "display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src= "https://assets.libsyn.com/secure/show/69800/Bernie_Sanders_mittens.jpg" alt="Bernie's Mittens" width="94" height="203" /></a></p>