Why do we decide to share something? How does an image with a few words go viral? In Quartz, Christopher Mims looks at the science of memes. We know some things. Memes tend to do well if they travel in packs and grow gradually. But we don’t know others. For example, “no one has yet to rigorously demonstrate, in advance, why any particular type of content goes viral. This sort of prognostication remains an art rather than a science.”

+ The one thing we share more than memes is the latest news about ourselves. And as The Atlantic’s Frank Rose explained in this 2012 piece, there could be some evolutionary advantages of talking about oneself. If that’s true, I’m pretty sure some of my Facebook friends would be living in the future.

+ And if you missed this article last week, it’s worth a read (partially because the news we share on the Internet might just surprise you on the upside): The 15 most shared news stories on Monday and why they went viral.

+ Here’s a simple way to share something that will make you feel more evolved, increase your popularity among friends and followers, and make me have a pretty good weekend. Take a couple seconds and spread the word about NextDraft on Facebook or on Twitter.