The term “viral video” sounds scary. Is it a video that carries a computer virus on it and can infect your computer? Nope. It’s much less harmful, well, unless you’re the unwitting star of a viral video. Viral videos are online videos, such as YouTube videos, that become very popular and spread like wildfire, usually through emails, blogs and even Twitter and instant messaging. No one knows what makes a video go viral. They are often funny or could be embarrassing for the person in the video. Recent examples are the ruckus that happened during the auditions for America’s Top Model, or my current favourite, Bizkit the Sleep Walking Dog:
So, the next time someone sends you an email with a link to a video and you forward it on, you may actually be helping to create the next viral video. I’d love to hear from you about your favourite viral video.
March 18th, 2009 at 10:36 am
I’ve been laughing at this one all week.