Why do things go viral?

Feb. 26, 2015 was the day the internet was changed forever. Something seemingly so unimportant came out of nowhere that would change the fabric of our internet reality. The dress. What color was the dress? White and gold, or black and blue? The dress seemed to pop up out of nowhere, and then it was everywhere. The average conversation for the weeks following the picture were, “Hey, have you seen this dress? What color do you see?” If the response was contrary to what they saw, an argument was sparked and a relationship could possibly be ruined. How is it that something so simple could have such an impact on society?

In the year since the dress incident, which was labeled with the hashtag #dressgate, a number of pictures and videos have gone viral, none quite as controversial as the dress. Most recently, a simple video that makes little to no sense, “Damn Daniel.” We see people quote and parody these videos over and over until the next viral sensation comes along. What’s the secret? Where does it start and how on earth do these videos and pictures find so much success so quickly?

Think back to a few viral videos that hit Youtube about 3 years ago. It’s a long time to think back to but it serves a purpose. Remember the Harlem Shake and Psy’s Gangnam Style? Both were huge viral sensations, right? So what is the difference between the two? The difference is one had team of people pushing their song to go viral, to get just over 2.5 billion views as of February 29, 2016, and the other sparked a social phenomenon. Gangnam Style didn’t go viral by chance;it had a marketing team and PR department pushing the song until it finally hit a speed that they could let up and let it travel to internet fame.

But the Harlem Shake, The dress and “Damn Daniel” didn’t have marketing teams or PR departments to aid in the advertising. They just blew up. But why? According to Professor Jonah Berger in an interview with business insider, “It’s not luck, it’s not random, it’s not cats,” he says. “There’s a science behind it. We have to understand the psychology and the social transmission process.” He continued to explain that we as a human race have an innate desire to share and be included.

That’s why things go viral. It’s a perfect storm of human psychology and internet “shareability.” If your video or photo is shareable and has been framed so that a simple click can give access to different videos, you have maybe, just maybe cracked the code to getting something to go viral. But there is still no guarantee. There is something special about a viral sensation, something that not every video or picture has.

Sometimes things don’t make any sense. Why in the world did “Damn Daniel” blow up over night? The answer isn’t that simple — it didn’t happen over night. In watching the interview they had with Ellen DeGeneres, they had been working for weeks before it hit vitality. It took work on the creator’s behalf, and that’s the trick to a viral sensation: hard work by the creators.

— Zach is a sophomore at USU studying PR, and the dress is white and gold.

Column Title: Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood

-zrogers2222@gmail.com