The World

Viral does not equal valuable

Viral concepts travel faster than you or I could.  They seem to bounce from one hand to the next, one brain to the next, faster than comprehension can keep up.  They are fueled by the forward button and a thumbs up.  Their reach is only limitted by the network that they travel in. 

Every one will agree that an idea that goes viral is an idea that has power. But what sort of power? 

Way back before the World Wide Web, there was a forgettable B-grade horror film called The Stuff .  The story line was weak, but it started with someone discovering some weird Stuff oozing up from the ground.  For some reason, they ate it and loved it, so they packaged it up and sold it to the world.  

In today’s terms, this Stuff went Viral.  Everyone, everywhere wanted it and it was a massive success.  It went from first discovery to popular acceptance, in only a couple of weeks.  It is a marketers dream.  A self selling product.   Word of mouth marketing. 

But there was one problem.  It wasn’t long before people realized that The Stuff ended up eating your brain and turning you into a zombi.  A pity really.  People ate The Stuff and The Stuff ate the people.

Is it possible that some of the ideas that travel virally around our world today are as dangerous?  Would we really know?  We see information, concepts, products and services going from zero to world saturation in what seems like minutes.  A report or a video or even a joke can circulate the globe faster than any of us could, as it is passed from person to person, email to email.  Of course some of it is priceless, but there is a lot that is very popular but useless.  Some, I believe are downright dangerous.

Today, virality - rampant popularity - is seen as credibility.  If we hear the same idea coming from a number of directions, all in a short space of time, how could we not take it seriously.  If the sources that pass the message to us are usually trustworthy then we are likely to trust the message, and so we pass it on.  If something goes viral, it has received the people’s stamp of approval. 

In reality, all that going viral means is that enough people feel comfortable enough with something to pass it on to their neighbours.  Virality, tells us nothing about truth or integrity.  Virality is neither a test of quality or a guarantee of usefulness.  All virality is, is a popularity contest.  The concept on the move, is close enough to conventional wisdom to make it into your inbox and not outrageous enough to make you delete it.  It has the exciting flavour of something new and essential and so you forward it on or give it a thumbs up. 

This doesn’t give me much hope for finding wisdom in a viral message.  If it is really popular or widely accepted, then at its best it will usually be watered down, conventional wisdom with a veneer of something new.  It has to be old news to be accepted by such a range of people.  At its worst, viral messages can hold dangerous prejudice or hidden manipulation carefully cloaked in familiar and agreeable concepts. 

Try watching the front page of Digg for a while and see what patterns you notice coming up.  This is where we see viral ideas on the move.  Some are great, some are useless and some should set our warning bells ringing.  If something has made it to the Digg front page it is already in the viral process.  What do you see there?

Everyone wants to create Viral Stuff or at least to discover and pass on Viral Stuff.  It is power marketing, social approval and credibility all rolled into one.  A dangerous concept can travel just as virally as a useful one, so we have to use our judgement.  We have to be careful about our acceptance of Viral Stuff.  We have to be doubly careful of being the vector that transmits dangerous or misleading viral content. 

 ”Are you eating it or is it eating you?” (David ‘Mo’ Rutherford in The Stuff)