Macrocosm: The Science of Breaking the Internet
Emilija Manevska
Kim Kardashian first broke the internet in 2014 with her cover photo for Paper’s winter issue. The image, which prominently features Kardashian’s nude derrière, generated 22.5 million page views in just two days. A massive increase from the 25,000 views the website typically averaged. Something “breaks the internet” when it causes an uproar online. Dominating the conversation across the internet and provoking interest, shock, or excitement. The phrase comes from the notion that driving web traffic to a specific page or post online could overwhelm servers and cause a website to crash.
Viral content has the unique ability to connect all people. Black and blue or white and gold, laurel or yanny, condescending Wonka, evil Kermit, “I am once again asking…”, etc. It’s crazy that with only a few words, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins first coined the term “meme” back in 1976 in his book, The Selfish Gene. A meme is a unit of cultural information, an idea that spreads from person to person and often carries symbolic meaning. Dawkins argued that like the genes in DNA, memes are subject to evolutionary pressures such as replication and adaptation. This makes complete sense considering, today memes are shared and reimagined all the time.
Multiple examples of the Distracted Boyfriend meme.
Just Human Things
Compared to other species, humans are unusually social animals. When we interact with others our brains release dopamine, the infamous “feel-good hormone.” They also release oxytocin, the “love hormone.” Oxytocin regulates social interaction and sexual reproduction, it is critical for childbirth, breastfeeding, and social behaviors. Our ancestors relied on oxytocin to strengthen and form tight-knit relationships, procreate, and build enduring communities. Dopamine and oxytocin act as natural opiates, released when we form new relationships. They are what make hanging out with friends, dating, and going to parties so enjoyable. The internet and social media have made interacting with others effortless. They allow us to painlessly connect with humans from across the globe and trigger these powerful hormones.
Shut Up and Take My Money
The internet allows us to share information at an unprecedented rate. It only takes a few seconds to share a funny picture, an intriguing video, or a moving song with others on social media. Some may choose to share them with their own followers, who may also do the same. When this happens enough times, in a short period of time it is known as “going viral”. There is no consensus on the number of views or likes needed to be classified as viral, it all depends on the type of content and platform. Most would agree that hundreds of thousands or millions over the course of a couple of days is a good place to start.
The widespread popularity of viral content has seeped into unexpected fields, leading to the emergence of viral marketing. Brands are exploiting the idea of going viral to increase their consumer bases. In Contagious: Why Things Catch On, Jonah Berger, a marketing professor at Wharton Business School, identifies the six key principles that drive virality: social currency, triggers, emotion, public, practical value, and stories. To create word of mouth, brands are encouraged to market products that: increase social status, are memorable, give customers a reason to care, are simple, serve a purpose, and convey an idea or message.
Many marketing campaigns have been able to successfully capitalize on this idea. In 2014, the Ice Bucket Challenge raised over $115 million for ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) research. Participants dumped a bucket of ice cold water over their heads, made a donation, and challenged their friends to do the same. The campaign spread like wildfire with celebrities, internet personalities, and everyday people getting involved.
“Are You Not Entertained?”
Within the past decade viral content has changed drastically. The early 2010’s saw the release of double rainbow, Nyan cat, and Rebecca Black’s “Friday”. To date, these videos have a combined 375 million views on YouTube. In 2019, an animation, one person doing 54 singing impressions, and some trick shots topped YouTube’s list of most watched videos. In only a small fraction of time, these videos have amassed 329 million views. This is partially a result of internet access becoming more universal, but mostly because content creators have started to understand what viewers want to see.
Take for example clickbait videos, those meant to draw attention and encourage clicks. Their ability to attract millions of views, and as a result tons of ad revenue, has incited the rise of content farms. These are companies that string together the same clips, insert them into videos with different click-worthy titles, and regurgitate them across multiple channels. In her book Webs of Influence, Nathalie Nahai explains that there is a method to this madness. Most clickbait video titles follow a specific formula: a number, followed by an adjective, followed by a keyword, and ending with a promise. “25 Clever Tricks for Parents That Will Make Life Easier”, “21 Incredible Balloon Tricks That Will Surprise You”, “42 Holy Grail Hacks That Will Save You a Fortune”. All of these titles were pulled straight from the 5-Minute Crafts YouTube channel which currently has 68.5 million subscribers.
YouTube is only one of the many social media platforms where content can “blow up”. Posts originating on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Vine (rip), and Facebook have achieved viral success. This begs an important question: what is the secret to going viral? In other words, what makes people want to share what they see online? It all boils down to the impulse to nurture our relationships with others. A study conducted by the New York Times Customer Insight Group in collaboration with Latitude Research uncovered the five primary motivations for sharing content. We share things online in order to: bring valuable and entertaining content to others, define ourselves to others, grow and nourish our relationships, get the word out about causes or brands, and for self-fulfillment.
We tend to let our emotions lead us, and are more likely to share content that triggers a positive emotional response such as joy, awe, hope, and excitement. Some psychological theories have been proposed to explain why we gravitate towards certain types of content. Our brains are accustomed to repeatedly seeing the same ideas, so we often search for novelty. When we come across something new, our brains are flooded with dopamine leading to those positive feelings that make us more likely to share content. The same thing happens when we are confronted with a gap in our knowledge. Humans are naturally curious and will go to great lengths to find the information they don’t know. Curiosity is like an itch we can’t seem to scratch, so when do, our reward is a release of dopamine.
Haters Gonna Say It's Fake
In spite of how hard we try to understand it, sometimes viral success is completely accidental. Danielle Bregoli probably never could have imagined the amount of attention she would receive from an appearance on Dr. Phil in 2016. After hurling the now iconic comeback "cash me ousside, how bout dah”, she instantly became a meme. Bregoli was able to cash in on her trendiness and is now a successful rapper and internet personality professionally known as Bhad Bhabie. This is just one of the many instances in which someone accidently went viral. Breaking the internet is the new American dream with people constantly trying to obtain viral success. Although biology, technology, and psychology can help us to understand virality, by nature, it is unpredictable. Instead of trying to recreate it, maybe we should do what we do best and simply enjoy it.