ViralWorld

The platform era

A dozen platforms at once, each with its own idea of what a video was for.

Starts in 2015, as feeds stopped showing posts in the order they were made and each platform began deciding what you saw. The edges are soft: nothing changed on the first of January. The six eras are this archive’s own way of dividing the years, not an agreed history.

Where people were
Instagram, Snapchat, Twitch and YouTube as separate worlds, with Twitter as the place the rest were argued about.
What it looked like
The labelled stock photograph, the screenshot of a post, the live moment clipped out of a stream, and the challenge filmed vertically.
How a thing spread
By recommendation. A thing spread inside one platform first, in that platform’s shape, and crossed to the others as a screenshot or a re-upload.
What changed
There stopped being one front page. Something could be enormous on one platform and unknown on the next, and the same joke existed in several versions made for different rooms.
What stayed
The template meme with labels on it, the platform-specific celebrity, and the screenshot as proof.

Defining momentsWhat shows it

Lofi Girl
Start with this one

Lofi Girl

You might remember it as ChilledCow, lofi hip hop radio and 1 more

A drawing of a girl studying, streaming without stopping for years.

The ones people still talk aboutRemember these?

Remembered, and worth knowingAlso from these years

More that people namedAnd the rest of the chapter

Keep browsingKeep going