Who’s in charge here? Seriously? Who calls all the shots? Who decides what videos go viral and which ones go unnoticed? Social media are unbiased, are they not? Certainly they are free from the hegemonic confines of big brother, are they not? No agenda setting or framing influences contaminate the free flow of ideas over YouTube and Twitter. It can’t be. All the content there is user generated, right?
As the video demonstrates, there exists a multitude of YouTubers who have become overnight sensations. Many of these starlets deserve attention. What is not to love about a break dancing baby? Others, on the other hand, seem to get attention for no reason other than how pathetic they are. A man fails to land a back flip and somehow becomes popular. How peculiar!
Videos are not the only things that seem to catch on throughout the interwebs without advanced warning. Consider, for example, the sudden out pour of Facebook statuses last October that read “I like it on the ___.” The blank, which ladies filled in with whatever tickled their fancies, turned out to be their purses and where they like to leave them. The whole fiasco got male users all worked up, but in the end, turned out to be a clever campaign to raise awareness for breast cancer during breast cancer awareness month. A similar occurrence happened the year before, where women listed the color of their bras as their statuses. Both campaigns were extremely successful, but they seemed to happen naturally, without any premeditated action.
This brings me to my original point. How do things spontaneously go viral? Not every status trend or video upload has a deeper significance, yet they spread anyway. Is that just the nature of the beast, or is someone out there pulling all the strings?
I have the same doubts. Many people get famed overnight on Youtube, Twitter, etc. Some are really worth attention because they bring us either beautiful life and something to enjoy. But there are others that are really snobbish and play to the gallery. It is surprising that they will get viral! I'd say some people or content get popular spontaneously because they are good in nature, they may represent many people's dedication and endeavor, and audience will not reject anything that's good in nature. But we have to admit that there are many pushing hands behind social media. What we see sometimes is not what it truly is. Be aware of that, I don't want to contribute to something for someone's profits but does nothing good to our lives!
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