“You have a smooth brain. No ridges or lumps, no valleys or bumps,” a soothing voice says in a TikTok audio used in almost 100,000 videos. “All ideas slide right off.” The “smooth brain” TikTok audio, ...

Your brain is biologically wired for memes. Memes don’t just spread for fun; they tap into parts of the brain evolved to help us learn from others, develop skills, and adapt to our social environment.

A few weeks ago, posters on 4chan and Tumblr began bragging — ironically, sort of, as all things on 4chan and Tumblr are — about the size of their brains. Because this is how they communicate with one ...