In the second post I wrote on this blog I talked about cat videos (put link here) and how they can help us when we are stressed out. I talked about cuteness I talked how the internet loves cats and all that stuff, but now I’m going to talk about something else the internet is very well known for, Viral Videos and Viral Trends.
Anyone who surfs the internet knows that almost anything can go viral. Sometimes it’s inspiring, sometimes it’s sad, sometimes it’s interesting, but most of the time it’s stupid but funny. A lot of the time the most stupid things go viral and no one knows why. For example, who remembers this little video?
It isn’t exactly the most awe inspiring thing in the world; in fact it’s pretty damn stupid. Let’s analyse it, we have a Japanese man wearing leopard print clothes, dancing around and sticking imaginary fruits into an imaginary pen, describing how he does it, and somehow that blew up into a viral sensation. WHAT!?
Don’t get me wrong I thought it was funny when I first saw it, weird as all heck, but funny. The internet is filled with silly but funny stuff that goes viral but I didn’t expect PPAP to go viral like it did, it’s everywhere. It’s almost become as big as the Harlem shake.
That one was pretty stupid too, but for a while everyone was doing it. Most of the more famous viral videos are the stupid and funny ones, whether they were just lucky to get it on camera or shot on purpose, they go viral and everyone gets to see them and have a good laugh, and that is why they can help you when you are stressed out.
We’ve all heard about how laughter is the best medicine, when you laugh you end up taking in more oxygen, stimulating your heart and muscles, and increase the production of those feel good endorphins in your brain, making you feel a lot better overall. Not to mention laughter does this strange thing to us where it activates our stress response and then immediately turns it off, leaving us with a relaxed feeling at the end of it. I talk about how laughter is good for us in one my previous posts; you can check it out here.
There is however some viral trends that are not just stupid but downright wrong and distasteful, take the Harambe incident. For those of you who don’t know, on May 28th of 2016 a three year old boy climbed into a gorilla enclosure in the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. The boy was caught and dragged around by a 17 year old Western lowland gorilla named Harambe. Scared that the boy might die, one of the zoo workers shot and killed Harmabe. The entire incident was recorded on video and was covered internationally, spawning a worldwide controversy. Many felt that the zoo acted too harshly, others have said that given the circumstances the zoo did the right thing, regrettable as it was. The incident also brought about an entire viral trend with memes about Harambe cropping up everywhere, some of which weren’t exactly in good taste. Here, I’ll let this video from the Fine Bros do the talking.
So yes not all viral trends are funny but I would say 90% of them are, and will almost definitely make you laugh. So the next time you feel down and are looking for a good laugh, try watching a viral video; if it doesn’t make you laugh it will make you wonder how the heck some things become viral at all!
Alternative Yoga 