Week 5

     The topic of discussion this week concerned the subject of videos, posts, etc. going viral. Why does something actually go viral? What makes one video better than any of the other billions of videos that are posted?
     For me personally, what makes me share a video relies heavily on the content of the video and how it relates to my life. If I see a video that I can relate to, like something involving living with anxiety, then I will most likely share it. I'm also more likely to share a video if it has a high cuteness factor, like cat videos. I'm also partial to sharing funny videos, particularly ones with animals, because everyone needs a little laughter in their life. I typically am not concerned about sharing videos that millions of other people are sharing; I'm more interested in sharing videos that mean something to me or bring me high levels of enjoyment that I think other people should be able to get from it as well.
     For other people, why they share a video might be totally different. Maybe they only rely on how they feel in the moment they see it. Maybe they rely on seeing what their friends and family share and then decide to share it too. Or maybe a celebrity shares the video and then they decide that since that celebrity shared it, it must be interesting and they should share it too. Without polling everybody in the world who shares a video, which would be next to impossible, no one can say for 100% certainty why certain videos go viral over others.
     One particular subject, that has gone viral, is the "dress; the one that some people see as gold and white, and others see as blue and black. We talked about what helped that go viral was that celebrities were getting in on saying what colors they were seeing; it wasn't just your everyday average person. It is sad, but as regular people we are very interested in what celebrities are interested in. If they think it is good enough to share, then we should too. However, I also think that it sparked heated discussions helped as well. For some strange reason, we enjoy arguing with other people. It brings us some kind of pleasure having someone to argue/disagree with, especially if it is a widely publicized debate.