Do you ever wonder how those seemingly ubiquitous (you like my new word? I got it from my word-a-day toilet paper!) chain-letters memes get started? Do they form by a sort of spontaneous act, like a million monkeys at keyboards suddenly pounding out Hamlet? Do any of them have an actual starting point? Or are they evidence the the internet is developing self-awareness and just wants to know who we all are, and why we are giving it (or him, or her) a headache with all this incessant pounding of keyboards?

Yeah, I know, I know – you’re probably thinking, I’ve finally lost it. Over the edge; around the bend, off the deep end. Well, maybe so. But ever since getting tagged with the recent 5 Reasons Why I Blog meme, I’ve been wondering just how far these things can go.

Out of curiosity, I followed it backward from Ilker (who tagged me) until I finally uncovered who started it (or claims to, anyway). After a bit of link-chasing, the trail ultimately leads to James Cleverly, who originated the meme in this post back on January 31. Good for you, James! You’ll be pleased to know in less than two weeks your meme is up to 10 generations already, with no end in sight.

Now stop and think about that for a moment (augh! the noise! the noise!). 10 generations of 5 tags each. If you assumed all 5 taggees write a post, then tag 5 more, etc., how many does that come to anyway? Well, let’s see (I’ll need to remove my shoes for this one, so hold on a minute)… OK, that’s 5 to the 10th power, or 9,765,625 people! Technorati says there are about 55 million blogs – it would only take one more iteration to nearly equal that number in total posts. Holy Moley!!!!!

Of course, that would be the case in a perfect world, where every taggee tags 5 more. Even if not everyone posts, or if some of them are duplicated (which is inevitable, considering), you can still reach a suprisingly large number of people. for instance, if the average response was only 3 of every 5 tagged, then ten interations would yield 59,049 posts, but 15 iterations (a not unreasonable expectation, by the way) would yield 14,384,907 posts! (In reality it’s likely the actual number of tags would degenerate over time from 5 per persons to none, so the final number would be somewhat less than optimum.)

But still, it gives one pause, doesn’t it? Right there in front of you, on the desk, table, lap or even stump is the means whereby you can touch a truly amazing number of people – potentially the entire world (uh, that have computers, of course). What will you do?

So here’s what I’m thinking… How about a little experiment in social networking. Why not start your own meme? (OK, before you rush off and do something you may regret, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE read the rest of this post!)

Warning! Think before you post!!!!

Please (have I said that enough?) don’t do the usual “5 things about me” blather (done to death and then some)! Sit down and consider what you (and everyone who follows) might like to know about people whom you or they (might barely) know. I’m thinking of something along the lines of “risky questions“. (You need to read this to know what I mean – and bear in mind the caveat.)

A word of warning: it can be an awesome responsibility to start something like this. Remember that you have, in the palm of your hand (actually, it’s beneath the fingers of your hands, but you get the point), the power to touch a potentially huge number of people in a positive way… or you could irritate the same number (or more). And at worst, you could end up reaping the wrath of bloggers everywhere (or at least Technorati).

One thing I see quite often is the sentiment that many (if not most) of these memes are merely a waste of time and bandwidth (and heaven forbid I be responsible for starting one of those). On the other hand, many if not most bloggers will likely respond positively if approached with something they perceive as original and/or worth their time, so if you truly want to contribute something to the huge ongoing conversation known as the blogosphere, consider carefully what you plan to start.

Anyway, think about it – I”ll be pondering one of my own. And if you DO decide to start one, drop me a link and let me know, I’d like to post it on this blog. (I can hear it now: “Aha,” you say. “It’s just another not-so-clever way to gather links.” Well, the thing is, I’d really like to know. I can’t think of any other way to say it.)

(Many thanks to Ilker for the timely and hilarious graphic. However, my favorite quote along this artery vein is from Great Quotes #7: “If you gave an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters, eventually one of them would write ‘Hey Hey We’re the Monkees!’” – unknown.)