Report Blog Entry
when was the last time you ever heard someone say "viral video"?
the last time i heard someone say that in earnest was probably 2017, and that's just me guessing. quite frankly, i don't believe the term has been used in a non-ironic way since... yeah, since 2017. hell, even the word 'viral' is kind of a meme (unless of course it's used in a medical context) and gives off 2011 vibes.
i was just watching a documentary called Winnebago Man, a documentary from 2010, and the entire thing is based around one of the very first viral videos of a collection of outtakes from a Winnebago industrial video shown to investors of the spokesperson cursing and screaming at various random things. it's genuinely hilarious.
but something i realized while watching it is that the whole concept of the viral video started with VHS tapes being copied and passed around, like the winnebago man video, and passed onto friends, who would also make a few copies and give them to more friends, etc etc. it's really quite a fascinating and beautiful thing. kinda like a gift in a way. gifting a video to someone you think would enjoy it just as much as you did, and they too gifting it to others.
i think this ritual died not with the internet but with DVDs. VHS tapes made things like this extremely easy, but DVDs not so much. you can't really copy a DVD without some technical know-how, and even these days it's kinda complicated (i mean not really but it's not one of those things where you can just do it, y'know?) to do so. then the internet happened, and sure sending videos to your friends is a thing that was, has been, and always will be an aspect of it. it's just what we do here. but there's no longer that personal connection to the video. you just send it the same way you send a text. there's barely any effort, no love, not really a thought behind it. sure it makes the process easier but you lose that physical aspect. that real, human connection. you lose what's lost behind the pixels on your screen.
i dunno. just something that came to me
Comments
Displaying 1 of 1 comments ( View all | Add Comment )
angel
that's an interesting way of thinking about it! a while back a friend of mine put the live recording of a show we saw as well as some videos of us after the show onto a dvd for each of our friends and it meant the world to me because no one's ever done anything like that for me before. it feels so different than being sent the link to the same videos. or with music, i'm way more likely to keep looping a cd someone gives me than a playlist or album they linked me too. i guess the effort goes a long way. but how does virality play into it? i mean, the death of the viral video, how does it become an issue of interpersonal connection? besides the fact that i guess people don't really think about viral videos much anymore. the shorter meme cycle and all
i guess the physicality of receiving something is what was lost, hence the loss of interpersonal connection. the person who gave you that VHS copy, or mixtape, or whatever, took the time to curate something that they think you would enjoy and now it's yours. you *can* do the same thing by making spotify playlists or a compilation of videos for that person, but it's just not the same. it doesn't carry the same weight. maybe if both people involved are super into vintage tech and happen to have VCRs, then it's no issue at all. but most people these days aren't really into that, so the virality potential and continued sharing of that media is lost. again, it is possible to do it digitally, but it just is not the same. the shorter life cycle of online content plays a role too. when it's online, it's disposable. but if it's a physical gift, that's a keepsake. it actually means something.
imagine if you got a valentine card from two different people. one was a card bought at the store with some candy, and the other is a typewritten letter. which one is more meaningful?
by chee2k13; ; Report