It's Going to Spread: Social Media and Viral Trends

The main aspect of online media separating it from its printed and broadcast predecessors is its capacity for 'going viral'. From topical trends to more trivial fancies, viral trends appear to be indiscriminate in subject matter, yet share the requirement of being widely relevant to a large number of people. Established online social networks then enable speedy sharing of relevant information among members of the internet community, eventuating in a ‘viral’ trend.

When we look at this within the frame of how social media can affect social movements, it is clear that social media will have a role to play in how socially significant decisions are made, but how that role will develop is uncertain.

In recent times, social media has played a key role in various significant social changes. For example:

• Early 2011 Cairo Revolution
• June 2011 Vancouver Stanley Cup Riot Clean Up
• August 2011 UK Riots and Clean Up Efforts

 
Today, unlike ever before, pieces of information are able to spread with speed and tenacity due to the accessibility, immediacy and widespread reach of the online medium. Social media is a key player in the facilitation of viral trends. The majority of people today are a part of an online social network.

Facebook boasts that the average person is linked to 130 people on their friend lists, and that they are connected to an average of 80 community pages and events.

These connections provide a platform for messages and trends to take shape and spread, strengthening their possibility to manifest outside of a virtual environment.



The 'mob mentality' the social media promotes can be seen in more trivial situations like Kate's Party where tens of thousands of people managed to share in a collective joke through the Facebook medium. However, while one message was broadcast on such a massive scale, it was taken in different ways by different people. Some not understanding the joke, some finding it humorous, and others chastising the community. 

What we are seeing here is a demonstration of active media consumption and an example of the obsolescence of the Hypodermic Needle Media Theory. While Social Media provides us with a new forum of communication, it appears that it continues to fit with certain rules and philosophies about media and communications.