aftertherockets

The term comes from the same Greek root as imitate. It's anything that people repeat after observing other people doing it. Language most likely developed as a meme, as did most organised religions and what not. The survey-thing is just a more easily tracable form (and the form that seems to have started people using the term "meme" so much). Other memes aren't as noticible as such, because they're usually a bit more subtle.