"Going viral" has become the holy grail of the internet these days. Everyone wants to find or create the video, photo or contest that will bring millions of hits and downloads, lead to network television interviews and all in all create an overnight star sensation. But beyond attention grubbing, do they do any good?
This question has been on my mind a lot of late. With Matador Life now on my plate of daily delicacies to do, I find myself sorting through endless articles, videos and photos trying to decide what should be posted on the Life blog and what should not. Each individual thread, cause, or idea demands attention and after a while, I find it very difficult to pay attention.
Today, for example, is a day to focus on climate and our environment. The Guardian along with fifty-five other papers in addition to countless blogs, websites and general media, have banded their voices together in a call for action from world leaders for climate change.
Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage
our planet and with it our prosperity and security," begins the editorial. The dangers have
been becoming apparent for a generation.
Julie Shwietert from Matador Change urges us to take responsibility and clean up after ourselves in her editorial response to a New York Times op-ed article written by Suketa Mehta in relation to the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal gas disaster.
There are plenty other causes as well.
Last week, a fun and heartwarming video called the Pink Gloves Dance for Breast Cancer Awareness emerged from the Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Oregon.
Mashable reported that the video had gone viral along with information of an FOX network performance with the dancers.
A sweet video of a soldier greeted by his dog Grace on his return from war caused an uproar a few weeks earlier, so much so that the soldier involved ended up begging for his privacy and to be left alone.
It begins to seem, at times, that going viral becomes the story, but what effect does such virulence have on the actual causes? Does awareness lead to action? Or does the blaring sound of media simply leave us numb?
What do you think?
Photo by HH-Michael
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