Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Viral Videos


Viral videos are an exciting part of the internet for me. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve stayed up late watching funny videos on YouTube before I go to bed. The internet has become a huge stage for hilarious/weird humor and it might be my favorite part of the whole world-wide-web. According to Wikipedia… “A viral video is a video that becomes popular through a viral process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites, social media and email.”

A video submitted to the internet has the potential of reaching MILLIONS of people and getting BILLIONS of views. Like what? Is that really possible? Yep. Mostly thanks to YouTube: the vessel for pretty much all viral videos. So what makes a video go viral? That’s the question of the hour. According to Judson Laipply who found his own viral video stardom from his Evolution of Dance video in 2006, he said “No one really has the keys.” Isn’t that true though? Think about all the viral videos that you’ve seen. Most have been a big fail or an accident that has turned into pure millennial GOLD. Let’s name a few; Charlie Bit My Finger, David after Dentist, the countless post wisdom teeth removal videos, extreme fail videos, etc. These have a main theme… they weren’t scripted. There is the valid argument though that some videos that go viral are scripted and do have a purpose. Which is true in Laipply’s and music video artist’s cases like Adele and Taylor swift. They have extreme talent though and what they present to the world is super skilled and interesting and almost perplexing to the rest of the world.

My favorite viral video would have to be one that I just found the other day. I just have to put the link here because I can’t even explain it well enough to give it the justice that it deserves.

Hopefully you watched that ^ and thought it was hilarious. THE SOUND THAT CAT MAKES OH MY GOSH. Don’t worry… the user said that the cat wasn’t harmed in the making of this film. Or so we hope. Let’s think though… what made that go viral? For me, I saw it on Twitter. Through researching this topic I’ve found the main key to be sharing these videos through various social media applications. The explosion of social media has allowed for the explosion of viral videos, and consequently viral video stars. Who knows, one of us could be the next David after Dentist. Ready set GO! Just remember to share it to your Facebook page.
 

No comments:

Post a Comment