Point Park University's Student-Run Newspaper

Point Park Globe

Point Park University's Student-Run Newspaper

Point Park Globe

Point Park University's Student-Run Newspaper

Point Park Globe

Viral videos serve as a positive force

No one can deny that viral videos have become a very important part of our society.  With the availability of inexpensive video editing and publishing tools, nearly everyone can share videos.  A cell phone is usually all that’s needed to create a video.  Without a doubt, viral videos are here to stay.  The question is – is that good or bad? One of the more recent news making viral videos was the Kony 2012 video.  Considered lengthy by viral video standards, it’s approximately 30 minutes long.  For those who may not know, it is a film created by Invisible Children, Inc.  The film was created to raise awareness of Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony’s alleged crimes and to hopefully help in capturing him.Kony 2012 was released March 5 with a goal of reaching half a million views.  In retrospect, that was a modest goal. As of April 16, the official Kony 2012 had been viewed more than 87 million times. How did that happen?  One day after the film was released, Oprah Winfrey tweeted about it.  She has 10 million followers on Twitter.  Views of the film skyrocketed to 9 million in one day.Even more exposure occurred when other celebrities such as Ryan Seacrest, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj and even Justin Bieber tweeted the hashtag #stopkony.  According to the Pew Institute, within days of its release, almost half of America had heard about Kony 2012.  I’d certainly say the goal of creating awareness was achieved.I mentioned Justin Bieber tweeting support for the Kony video.  For those of us who are not big-time fans of his, it may be surprising to find out that he is a creation of the viral video generation.  At age 12, Bieber began posting homemade videos of himself on YouTube, and as his audience increased, the music industry noticed.In a 2009 interview, Bieber said, “It had a hundred views, then a thousand views, then 10 thousand views, so I just kept posting more videos and more videos.  Eventually, I got found by my manager who flew me to Atlanta to meet Usher.” So yes, Bieber Fever began thanks to YouTube videos. Speaking of music, one of the more classic viral videos is one that is usually hidden from its audience. It’s a phenomenon known as Rickrolling. Someone posts a link to a seemingly relevant or interesting item, but instead the link leads one to a video for a lame 1980’s song by Rick Astley – hence the term Rickroll.It’s believed that this started, or perhaps just became more popular, on April Fools’ Day in 2008. All of the featured videos on YouTube’s front page hyperlinked to the Rickroll.  Other instances of rickrolling appeared on the Internet shortly thereafter.  Needless to say, this has revitalized the career of what would have otherwise been a forgotten one hit wonder from the 80’s. Viral videos are not always planned occurrences.  In fact, it can be argued the best ones are those that are just regular people.  To celebrate YouTube’s fifth anniversary in 2010, Time magazine created a list of the top 50 YouTube videos. Number one on Time’s list was “Charlie Bit My Finger.”  Unlike the 30 minute long Kony video described earlier, Charlie Bit My Finger is less than a minute.  It’s two children from England: Harry and Charlie.  Harry sticks his finger in Charlie’s mouth and you guessed it, Charlie bit him. This video was uploaded in May 2007, and has more than 400 million views so far.  Originally uploaded so the boys’ godfather in the United States could see it, the family was stunned that so many people viewed the video.The boys’ father, Howard Davies-Carr, said, “I was naive about the whole YouTube thing. It became viral and once that happened there was nothing I could do. People have sent lovely comments and messages, and I now upload a new video of the boys every six weeks.” Because of the advertising with more popular YouTube videos, this could pay for the boys’ college.  That seems like a nice spillover benefit for creating a one-time funny video.Number three on the Time magazine list is another video that depicts regular people, not celebrities or musical artists.  This one is titled David After Dentist.  David DeVore Jr.’s father posted a video on the Internet of his seven-year-old son’s reaction to anesthesia after he had oral surgery.  With a well-placed scream and questions such as “Is this real life?” and “Is this going to be forever?” this video became popular very quickly.David’s father originally posted the video on Facebook.  Friends of friends wanted to see the video, so he uploaded it to YouTube.  Just three days later, there were over 3 million views. It now has over 100 million views.  Just like Harry and Charlie, I’m sure David’s college fund is set.  But, the family has also sold “David after Dentist” t-shirts and donated a portion of the revenue to dental charities.I can’t imagine there will ever be a shortage of “regular people videos” that will go viral and entertain us.  Just recently, a husband posed a question to his wife in a video: “If you’re traveling 80 miles per hour, how long does it take you to go 80 miles?”She really over thinks the answer and uses her own running speed as a starting point, then factors in tire speed, weight of the car and whether it’s a stick or an automatic. “It’s got to take like 58 minutes or something,” she says, not too far off from the correct answer of 60 minutes.The husband explained he just wanted to make the video to share with her family.  But, the fact that she’s cute and seems to live up to the dumb blonde stereotype meant this was destined to be a video that goes viral.  In an appearance on Good Morning America, she did seem to be a good sport about it.

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