2010·The social era
The reaction video
A genre in which the content is somebody's face while they watch something else, and which now accounts for an enormous share of what is watched online.
A trend people joined in with
- SourceNo single original
- MediaNot held by ViralWorld
What this was
A phenomenon classified under reactions.
It first appeared in 2010, during the social era.
It is the format that made watching somebody watch something a viable industry, and it raises the question the internet has never resolved: whether a face beside a stolen clip is commentary or appropriation. That question has been argued in courts and in platform policy for over a decade and the answer still depends on who you ask.
Reaction content is now a substantial share of what is uploaded to YouTube and streamed on Twitch, has produced repeated high-profile copyright disputes, and has shaped how studios release trailers. Researchers have studied why it works; the most persuasive answers are about social presence rather than about the clip.
More from 2010
- Wojak 2010The social era
- Vuvuzela 2010The social era
- The Man Your Man Could Smell Like 2010The social era
- Kids React 2010The social era
- Miracles (Insane Clown Posse) 2010The social era
- Never Say No to Panda 2010The social era
- PogChamp 2010The social era
- Newport State of Mind 2010The social era
- ASMR 2010The social era
- Mukbang 2010The social era
The social era
- Smash Mouth All Star 2014The social era
- What Does the Fox Say 2013The social era
- Ecce Homo of Borja 2012The social era
- Rebecca Black Friday 2011The social era
- Little Darth Vader 2011The social era
- Darude Sandstorm 2014The social era
- Press F to Pay Respects 2014The social era
- Twitch Plays Pokémon 2014The social era
- Mutant Giant Spider Dog 2014The social era
Related
- Surprise Proposal at Olive Garden 2012The social era
- Greatest moment from my dad's surprise party caught on camera 2011The social era
- Funny dog video - Tickling dog, you will SMILE! 2011The social era
- 004 Throwing a Surprise Party 2010The social era
- The hashtag 2007Early YouTube
- The GIF 1996Early web, before YouTube
- Moldy showers and no soap: Military families OUTRAGED by conditions on USS Lincoln 2026The last few years
- Romantic Surprise Wedding Proposal Caught on Camera 2016The platform era
Grouped by explicit relationships where evidence exists, and by shared theme otherwise.
Behind the recordWhere it came from
There is no original to identify: this spread through many separate posts at once rather than from a first one. ViralWorld holds no copy of it either — what it was, when it spread and what people called it is the record.
Nothing here is claimed to be the first version of this, because research established there was not one — it appeared in many places at once.
Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.
- What happens
- A phenomenon classified under reactions.