Viral phenomenon
Encyclopedia
Viral phenomena are objects or patterns able to replicate
themselves or convert other objects into copies of themselves when these objects are exposed to them.
The concept of something, other than a biological virus
, being viral came into vogue just after the Internet
became widely popular in the mid-to-late 1990s. An object, even a immaterial object, is considered to be viral when it has the ability to spread copies of itself or change other similar objects to become more like itself when those objects are simply exposed to the viral object. This has become a common way to describe how thoughts, information and trends move into and through a human population. Meme
s are possibly the best example of viral patterns. The 1992 novel Snow Crash
explores the implications of an ancient memetic meta-virus and its modern day computer virus equivalent:
Research on viral marketing techniques has begun to reveal some of the specific dynamics of the viral phenomenon. The viral spread of an Internet message involves a convergence of modalities, including blogs, social networking sites, and mass media
coverage. It is common for the message to spread and obtain notoriety via Internet modalities some amount of time before such notoriety is reported by mass media sources.
Examples of viral phenomena in addition to memes are:
Self-replication
Self-replication is any behavior of a dynamical system that yields construction of an identical copy of that dynamical system. Biological cells, given suitable environments, reproduce by cell division. During cell division, DNA is replicated and can be transmitted to offspring during reproduction...
themselves or convert other objects into copies of themselves when these objects are exposed to them.
The concept of something, other than a biological virus
Virus
A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...
, being viral came into vogue just after the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
became widely popular in the mid-to-late 1990s. An object, even a immaterial object, is considered to be viral when it has the ability to spread copies of itself or change other similar objects to become more like itself when those objects are simply exposed to the viral object. This has become a common way to describe how thoughts, information and trends move into and through a human population. Meme
Meme
A meme is "an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena...
s are possibly the best example of viral patterns. The 1992 novel Snow Crash
Snow Crash
Snow Crash is Neal Stephenson's third novel, published in 1992. Like many of Stephenson's other novels it covers history, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, religion, computer science, politics, cryptography, memetics, and philosophy....
explores the implications of an ancient memetic meta-virus and its modern day computer virus equivalent:
Research on viral marketing techniques has begun to reveal some of the specific dynamics of the viral phenomenon. The viral spread of an Internet message involves a convergence of modalities, including blogs, social networking sites, and mass media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
coverage. It is common for the message to spread and obtain notoriety via Internet modalities some amount of time before such notoriety is reported by mass media sources.
Examples of viral phenomena in addition to memes are:
- Viral marketingViral marketingViral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses...
- Viral ChangeViral ChangeViral Change, pioneered by Dr Leandro Herrero, is an approach to change management that focuses mainly on creating the diffusion of new ideas and processes through social contagion of behaviours that spread via social networks. Conceptually, it relates to an array of behavioural and social...
(creating behavioural change in business through social networks) - Viral videoViral videoA viral video is one that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites, social media and email...
- Chain letterChain letterA typical chain letter consists of a message that attempts to the recipient to make a number of copies of the letter and then pass them on to as many recipients as possible...
s - Viral emailViral emailA viral email is a certain kind of email which rapidly propagates from person to person, generally in a word-of-mouth manner...
- Viral licenseViral licenseViral license is a pejorative term used to describe a copyright license that allows derivative works only when licensed identically to the original. Licenses of this form include several common open source licenses, such as the GNU General Public License and the Creative Commons ShareAlike licenses...
s (such as the GNU General Public LicenseGNU General Public LicenseThe GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
) - Clothing fashionFashionFashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...
trends