Navigating the Risks of Viral Content in a Fragmented Digital Landscape

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In this episode, I explore why the concept of virality is dead. I look at how the death of monoculture and our increased reliance on algorithmic-based content consumption has led to a significantly more fragmented internet culture experience for users. In turn, virality no longer exists in the same way it once did.

Timestamps:

00:42 Intro

3:56 Virality is dead

4:57 Viralflation & the death of monoculture

7:35 How the internet became fragmented

10:33 Why it’s so difficult to measure “virality” now

11:20 Brands manufacturing fake viral trends: Athenos Feta soup saga

12:57 The rise of vanity metrics on social media & platforms creating artificial virality

15:21 Bella Poarch

16:19 How Facebook lowered the threshold of what could be considered a “view”

18:12 Cheugy as a “viral” word & how the context was completely lost

20:08 Virality is unpredictable & fleeting

21:30 Risks of going “viral” in 202522:20 TBH Skincare vs. Andrew Tate

23:45 Conclusion

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Sources:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/03/09/viral-view-counts-inflation/

Maddox, J., & Gill, F. (2023). Assembling “Sides” of TikTok: Examining Community, Culture, and Interface through a BookTok Case Study. Social Media + Society, 9(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051231213565 (Original work published 2023)

https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/62285/1/salad-fingers-20-anniversary-david-firth-patron-saint-weird-youtube-came-to-life 

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/30/flash-youtube-nostalgia 

https://zeefeed.com.au/kate-middleton-conspiracies-monoculture/ 

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cheugy 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/29/style/cheugy.html 

https://www.reddit.com/r/tiktokgossip/comments/v69nm3/it_seems_like_tiktok_is_inflating_its/ 

https://www.usermag.co/p/viralflation-comes-to-youtube 

https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/26/youtube-is-changing-how-youtube-shorts-views-are-counted/