The week
seven lecture was a thought-provoking insight into the concept of ‘viral media’.
It explored the premise of the world as an interlocked society, where ideas and
trends could ‘spread’ like viruses. Even in the medieval era, a disease passed
on from China wiped out a quarter of the world’s population. That plague was of
course, the Black Death.
Similar
spreads are apparent in current society through the internet. Meme’s are a
great example. Certain memes are universal and cross-cultural. The hysteria of
cat videos transcends boundaries – they can appeal to all ages and cultures;
everyone has similar experiences with cats. They behave the same manner in
every country, they have no hidden motives, other than being cats. Videos of
babies or toddlers are others that hold comparable appeal.
Other
memes and posts can be spread purely on a local level. In my own friendship
group, we take great delight in crudely photo shopping pictures of each other.
On a larger level, I observed the disappointing exposure given to the Adam
Goodes situation. Unfortunately much of the reaction to his plight was very
derogatory. I was able to witness many sporting posts, even unrelated matters,
where negative comments related to Goodes were commonly entrenched as the ‘top
comment’ with the most amount of likes. The Australian public were sheep,
following the herd in their treatment of the man. This ‘trend’ passed on to
crowds, who booed Goodes every time he touched the ball. This was an example of
a negative trend spreading, with the help of social media.
No comments:
Post a Comment