#social-media-virality

#social-media-virality

After living in the U.S. for seven years, Hung recently took the streets of New York by storm with an informal, intriguing business. The idea started three years ago when thousands of his fellow Venezuelans came to the Big Apple, but it only materialized a few weeks ago when he began selling portions of Venezuelan-style fried rice (a tropicalized version of the famous chow fan rice, which includes beef, chicken, shrimp, diced ham, vegetables, and wheat germ) in Brooklyn.

On Friday, members of Cienega High School's math department wore matching, bloodied white T-shirts with the words "Problem Solved" written in black lettering across the front. A picture of the group was posted on the Vail School District Facebook page. The district's superintendent, John Carruth, said in a statement that no student or parent complained about the costumes during the school day.

Even though he only took his first bow on the West End during a preview performance on Saturday, November 1, the lifelike titular bear from Paddington: The Musical already has thousands of worshippers around the world ready to die on his behalf (myself included). What's not to love? The stage version of the beloved children's character blinks eyes that are full of whimsy and optimism. He's cute, he's cuddly, and he's got a British accent - of course the internet is obsessed.

The kinds of videos that do well on YouTube Shorts are depressingly predictable: cute cats, heated arguments, crazy stunts, and plenty of good old-fashioned shots of people suffering low-key injuries. The issue is that the real world produces only so many epic fails. And of the small number that do happen, even fewer are caught on video. Think of all the airplane passenger arguments and dropped wedding cakes that have gone untaped and unposted!

Last September, Naima Troutt was one of 25 liberal college students chosen to debate Charlie Kirk. One interaction in the 90-minute video was particularly memorable: After Kirk attempts to argue that abortion is murder, Troutt mutters to herself, "Ugh, his smile is very creepy." "Oh, so smiling is creepy?" he asks, to which she replies, "No, your smile specifically." The room erupts into laughter. The clip went viral. Fan edits were made in her honor. In the world of debates designed for maximum social-media engagement,