I had a chat with a colleague at some point. We talked about memes as “information compressors.” Like Japanese Yojijukugo or Chinese Chengyu. Symbols packing whole poems or complex ideas.

Why? We’re drowning in information. Digital selves. Digital fingerprints. We need to process faster. Zoomers get it. They speak in memes. One minute of memes equals ten minutes of Boomer talk. That’s a 10x speed boost.

Compression leads to wisdom. Memes are like proverbs or idioms. But different. Both distill information, sure. But that’s like saying a Renault Clio and a Ferrari are both cars. There’s more to it.

Memes relate to intelligence. Zoomers process information faster than Boomers. But Zoomers tend to form clusters. This might make Zoomers feel isolated. It’s hard to get other groups’ lingo. Less motivation to bridge the gap.

It’s a new kind of echo chamber. Born from information overload. Useful skill? Probably. Long-term effects? Unclear.

I wonder: What’s the biggest cluster size? For me, it’s three. Add one more person, and it’s like hearing a foreign language. Made of familiar words, but still alien.

This compression thing. It’s changing how we communicate. How we think. How we connect. Or don’t. Food for thought.