Becoming The Virus

Reflections on a throwaway joke getting popular for no reason

View from my walk at sunset, Toledo, Ohio, fall 2024, while I rack up likes from strangers about a dumb thought I had over breakfast.

It probably says something less than flattering about the nature of virality and social media in general that I can’t immediately recall which of my posts was the first to go big on Threads.  It happened two or three times in the space of a week, completely out of nowhere, and I know they were political in nature, but I’d have to scroll back to tell you what I said that tickled so many people.

Today’s viral(?) post around 4pm

(I hesitate to use the word “viral” because I don’t know if there are specific numbers involved in that distinction.  I’m talking about posting a bunch of jokes into a silent void for six likes for months on end, then suddenly having something get a hundred thousand views and 20K+ shares.)

I never fully understood Twitter and I don’t understand Threads.