Week 5

     This week in class we discussed what makes something go "viral." We talked a lot about memes, and even looked at some famous ones. We watched YouTube videos with millions of likes. The one question we asked, though, was is it about these videos that makes them go viral? There doesn't seem to be a trend… some are funny, some are sad, some are exciting, and quite frankly, some are stupid. I think the main reason that things go viral is because they have had a "tastemaker" bring attention to them. For example, I used to watch The Soup on E News, and the host pretty much made fun of things that had been posted on the internet over the past week. There were times that I saw a short clips, and then searched them on YouTube so that I could see the rest. So, I'm assuming that has a lot to do with it going viral. You need someone who has a lot of attention to BRING attention to something.
     I was also thinking to myself… what makes certain memes funny to me and others not so much? I came to a conclusion: I like memes that make me realize something about myself that I never really thought about before. I like when I see something and it makes me think "Wow, so I'm not the only one who does this or thinks in this nonsensical way?!"For instance, I saw a meme the other day on Facebook. There was a cat staring directly at the back of a plain couch (very boring) and the meme said "People at modern are museums… 'Interesting piece!'" What is funny to me about that is that although I have never thought much about how uninteresting modern art museums are to me, I completely understood the point of the meme. What makes it even better is that there are so many other people that feel the same way. So, I think that is what makes a meme go viral. Unexpectedness in the sense that it makes you realize something about yourself, while also making you excited that you are not the only one who thinks that way. If a meme makes many people say "OH MY GOSH!!" when they see it, it probably has a decent chance of going viral. People live for unexpectedness.
     I guess we never really know what makes something go viral (if science cannot even figure it out, I definitely can't). However, I think I have a pretty decent theory!