Bakhtawar Saeed Professor Padgett ENGL 1102 April 6, 2014

The issues and causes surrounding internet virality and internet fame Virality or Viral has become a new term in todays age with the rise of social media. I had a hard time finding many articles that agreed on one definition for this simple yet important term. The definition simplified, as stated by Google, is an image or piece of information that rapidly circulates the internet from user to user. This generation Y is the first of its kind that actually make money by becoming famous on the internet. Our entire western society has now been shaped by the booming business of social media. The first generation of internet bloggers, fashion gurus, youtube stars, and even instagram models. Every single social media that exists in the virtual world has the top of the food chain. The group of self-made people that stem from our generation that just happened to get lucky with their account or blog. Ironically, internet virality has taken the world by storm and has produced a generation that many argue suffer from narcissism and explains why they all have their faces glued to the media. The driving force behind the rising usage of social media today is due to the desire to achieve virality and become famous. Many question where this desire to achieve virality stems from, and it comes from the platform of the internet. Before the world wide web and social media, the younger generation only could fawn and worship celebrities through the television and tabloid magazines. It is no secret that becoming rich and famous is ultimate dream for anyone. Social media has created this platform where people can access celebrity new and gossip within seconds, follow the said

celebrity on social media, and possibly even get a follow or tweet back. This gives a more personal relationship between the celebrity and ordinary person, which in turn gives ideas to the rest of the population. The idea is if someone starts posting and acting like the most famous person, they will gain a following just like the celebrity. Now one may ask the simple question, why does this generation want to achieve internet virality so badly? The answer is that it provides a justification or excuse for excessive social media use. (Reiner, 2013) In many cases, virality is just 15 minutes of fame because of one post or picture that received a lot of attention. This 15 minutes of fame encourages people to move on and achieve total internet fame or set following of people. Internet fame is when someone has become famous strictly by using the internet as their sole platform. This is the category where you will find your bloggers, youtube stars, and cream of the crop. Most, if not all, of these stars have gained their following by one viral post that kickstarted their success. Many also blame internet fame as sheer luck and doing the right thing at the right time. However, the most common case is the user trying incredibly hard to reach virality by repeatedly using social cues on every post to try to gain more followers or likes. Some posts just get spread around rapidly and become viral which in turn could slowly lead to the creators internet fame. Usually after a post goes viral, the creator would continue posting similar posts to the one that went viral to maintain their following and have it grow. This is a popular trend and most of the time, it is not a business strategy done on purpose. It is a habit that most people of generation Y have developed when handling social media. Professor Reiner states how he notices students manipulating their profiles to gain approval from friends and peers and their fear of falling out of the loop. (Reiner, 2013) As a member of this generation, I can confidently

say that if one of my posts magically gained a huge audience, I would definitely keep it up. This act boils down to Social Justification and merely trying to please your audience. Social justification in terms of social media means justifying the actions one makes through the social media in itself. Examples of this would be cyberbullying, usage of social cues, and self presentations. Self presentations are defined as how one presents themselves and sets up their profile (Hong, 2012) Based on the findings, Hong says that what people see on facebook is articulated pieces of information used to generate certain impressions. (Hong, 2012) This suggests that people deliberately set up their social profiles to please a certain audience. Examples of this would be a student and his college, an employee of a prestigious company, or an adolescent simply trying to blend in with his or her peers. This study explains how our internet profiles show an impression as how one wants to be perceived. In the same study, a psychological term was brought up and examined; Social cue. Social cues have huge part in making more of a positive impression on the profile itself. In the final findings, the more social cues result in the more likes a post gets. (Hong, 2012) An example of a social cue would be a profile picture with a popular song lyric as the caption or a trendy presentation of an online profile. I believe that by learning how to utilize the social cues is how many Internet famous people maintain their virality and relevance. As for cyberbullying, it has become common in relation to internet fame. Many who have achieved this ultimate goal of fame are subjected many forms of envious cyberbullying and some internet famous people cyberbully just to make their way to the top of the food chain. This cycle begins when people start to compare themselves to others on social media, especially to celebrities. Adolescents tend to compare themselves with a normative reference group. (Lee, 2014) Lee explains how the reference group are usually the popular kids in the age group or a popular celebrity among the generation. As a final result in

the study, it was found the self esteem was directly correlated to how much positive or negative feedback was received through the said social media. (Lee, 2014) Based on all of this, Social media has a heavy influence on how this generation determines their own self worth. It all has one leading factor of social justification and the mindset of everyone seems to like the post, I will continue to do it. Narcissism is also a heavily debatable topic when it comes to virality and social media because of how new all of this social media is to everyone. When someone begins to gain a following on a social media site, some argue that that the narcissism begins to take place. This is the category where the selfie would fall under, as well as striving for likes and more social justification. Scholar Shaun Davenport starts out by stating that social media and narcissism is thought to be linked. (Davenport, 2014) It is also hypothesised in the study that narcissism will be more apparent when creating a profile that makes others want to become a follower (Ex: Twitter) than a profile that makes others want to become a friend (Ex: Facebook). (Davenport, 2014) In social media, followers play a huge role because they are the ones that make the user feel relevant and feed into the attention that the user is seeking. Facebook allows only mutual friendships unlike the follower system where one doesnt have to have a mutual connection. The user can possibly have many followers that they dont follow back and this is usually the case. This is very similar to celebrities and their fans and it perhaps kick started the social media Narcissism in our generation. Likes and many followers make people feel relevant to the point where it makes their head big. It also links back to the main topic of the driving force behind social media being Internet fame. In one study done, the experimental statuses were made to test virality and the trend of likes. (Alhabash, 2013) More negative feedback was made when a positive status was posted and the nice status did not go viral or gain many likes. (Alhabash,

2013) This is also an excellent example of social cues and making posts in regards what one thinks his or her followers would appreciate. The sole purpose of social media was to share updates with friends and family, but it has warped into so much more. It has become a business, a means of expression, and a platform for people to feel a tiny sense of relevance like the celebrities they watch on the television. I strongly believe that the desire to achieve virality and become famous is the main driving force behind the popularity of social media. The reason I think this is because people of generation Y think that being internet famous is easy and craves into the attention they are seeking. This concept has become so large that the social media companies cater to it by adding on the system that created the problem. With facebook, virality was never an issue because everyone was mutual friends and their was no concept of a follower. Now most social media sites have this follower system which creates a competitive environment for people try to reach the top of the food chain with the most amount of followers and/or likes. It also provides the justification and excuse to stay on the said social media as well. It is the idea of having so many followers to cater to therefore you must stay on the site for 15 more minutes for them. Granted this is an exaggerated example, it happens all over the country and to many people and kids of the Generation Y. I noted that throughout researching this topic, the goal should be for one to post for themselves rather than anyone else because it is their profile afterall. Work Cited 1. Alhabash, Saleem, et al. "Between Likes And Shares: Effects Of Emotional Appeal And Virality On The Persuasiveness Of Anticyberbullying Messages On Facebook." Cyberpsychology, Behavior & Social Networking 16.3 (2013): 175182. Academic Search Complete. Web. 27 Feb. 2014. 2. Davenport, Shaun W., et al. "Twitter Versus Facebook: Exploring The Role Of

Narcissism In The Motives And Usage Of Different Social Media Platforms." Computers In Human Behavior 32.(2014): 212-220. Academic Search Complete. Web. 27 Feb. 2014. 3. Hong, Seoyeon, et al. "The Real You? The Role Of Visual Cues And Comment Congruence In Perceptions Of Social Attractiveness From Facebook Profiles." Cyberpsychology, Behavior & Social Networking 15.7 (2012): 339-344. Academic Search Complete. Web. 27 Feb. 2014. 4. Lee, Sang Yup. "How Do People Compare Themselves With Others On Social Network Sites?: The Case Of Facebook." Computers In Human Behavior 32.(2014): 253-260. Academic Search Complete. Web. 27 Feb. 2014. 5. Reiner, Andrew. "Looking for Intimacy in the Age of Facebook." The New York Times. The New York Times, 02 Nov. 2013. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.