Viral Media

Who has seen the video Charlie bit my finger?  Funny right? Well if you haven't seen it you can click on the link previous, so you know what I am talking about. But what makes the video spiral out of control? Why do millions of people around the world want to watch it?

 It was originally just a home video that was put on YouTube. Is it our love for innocent little children and when we see the youngest smile and laugh we find it hilarious because no longer is Charlie an innocent little child, he smirks with an evil grin. The video becomes viral starting with the first viewer and if they think its funny, then they want their family and friends to experience the same laughter, therefore expanding the networks. It could be suggested that there is a cycle for this where the video is online then watched by someone who shares it with others. When the cycle is repeated many times, and a large quantity of people have viewed the video this is when it has gone viral. Regarding the video Charlie bit my finger uploaded in 2007, therefore over six years this video has had enough time to go viral, with having 522,958,661 views on You Tube. All you have to do is type into Google charlie bit and already four different versions of the video appear.

However, another way of looking at viral media is identifying all the various connections and how they interact with each other as some people may show the person the video yet they have already seen it before. This model shows that viral media works like the human brain, when we learn new things we create new pathways in our brain.

In contrast, when each person views the video they have never seen, it creates new links in the network. This expands the network and over time when it has reached worldwide, there are several connections and people watching. Viral media never ends it continues, when a new person watches it. Due to videos being online they are irremovable and views will always be increasing over time. In a short amount of time already the video would become watched around the world, although it all starts in one place.