Going Viral in the 18th century vs Now!

In the 18^th century, Paine’s pamphlet contained an argument that had an impact on the idea of viral content. He created an argument in favour of American independence and posted it as a pamphlet in the newspaper. Paine created a media mode of production where he created a certain media environment where citizens were able to participate in. He created a mode of communication through his argument that was socially valued and an emotional controversy where meaningful messages *affected* the community. Paine created a culture of believers and disbelievers where anyone was able to share their opinions on American independence.

Music videos such as Friday and Hotline Bling in the 21^st century, gain their popularity over what Kevin Alloca calls “tastemakers”, who are popular people that have reliable sources of consumers to view any content they present.  In this form of content becoming viral, it also creates a form of believers and disbeliever. However, in the 21^st century, viral content is used for comedic purposes and similar beliefs. Personally I believe that viral content has more of a comedic standpoint as the mode of communication.  Media going viral like Kony 2012 had a meaningful mode of communication where people were coming together with a collective standpoint (besides what happened in the end).

Instead of making meaningful content consumers create a sense of affect through participating themselves. People feel included and popular when they participate in viral content. Through participating in viral media in the 21^st century, viewers consume and create popularity for the individual.  Like Kevin Alloca says, everyone wants to be famous. Everyone wants to be heard and gain popularity online to gain a mode of accumulation. Even the recent post about the girl on Instagram and how she was really depressed with her life because she gained a community of people that were interested in her, so she continued to post false interpretations of her life. She eventually got depressed realizing she was gaining the power of popularity by participating in the community with content that was not meaningful to herself.

Overall content that went viral in the 18^th century is way more impressive than the content that goes viral presently. Viral content in the 18^th century had to spread from one source to another to spread across the country. Whereas in the 21^st century if you post something on Facebook it can spread to every county in the world. Facebook, having about a billion users creates a platform perfect for sharing content to go viral.