ViralWorld

The social era

The years the feed took over, when a thing could reach everyone by Tuesday.

Starts in 2010, by which point most people met a video in a feed or a tweet rather than on the site that hosted it. 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
Facebook and Twitter feeds, Tumblr, Reddit, and from 2013 the six-second loops of Vine.
What it looked like
Captioned templates and reaction images, the remix made within days of the original, the song that was a dance, and the challenge that asked you to make your own.
How a thing spread
By the share button. One post from an account with a large audience could take a video nobody had watched for six months and put it in front of millions in a week.
What changed
A thing no longer had to be found. It arrived, pushed by people you followed, and the gap between something happening and everybody having seen it fell from weeks to a day.
What stayed
The reaction image as a way of replying, the challenge as a format, and the video with a billion views.

Defining momentsWhat shows it

Smash Mouth All Star
Start with this one

Smash Mouth All Star

You might remember it as All Star, All Star remix and 2 more

A 1999 song that became the most remixed piece of music on the internet.

The ones people still talk aboutRemember these?

Remembered, and worth knowingAlso from these years

More that people namedAnd the rest of the chapter

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