I talked a little bit in my first blog post about how we are always looking for our next video on TikTok or YouTube to be that next big phenom that everyone talks about for weeks till the next big trend comes along. What I continue to learn about trends is that they don't start out big, but people who started the trend find a way to get the word out quickly (which goes to another one of our topics, "spreadability") and like a wildfire it spreads quickly and next thing you know, it's gone viral.
To find out more as to how viral trends start, I did some research. I started by looking at the once-trending, Laurel or Yanny. When listening to it, you can hear two different pitches, a higher and a lower. I have found that when you focus on the lower pitch, you get Laurel, but when you listen to the higher pitch, you get Yanny. Interestingly enough, I didn't find this on the internet, but by my younger sister. She is always up to date on the latest trends and one day she showed this to my dad and I while we were in the car. Both my dad and I heard different names and actually started debating it and listened to it over and over again to see who was right. One day I started listening to it again and I finally heard "Yanny". After I realized there were two separate pitches, I told my dad that neither of us were right or wrong, we were just focusing on the two different pitches. Usually we never get sucked into trends but that one we got into (which is why I chose to focus on this specific one for this blog).
Like just about any good trend, it always goes back to some high school or college kids. Katie Hetzel is the one who started this trend. She was studying for world literature class and "laurel" was one of her vocabulary words. She then proceeded to go to Vocabulary. com and when she listened to the audio for laurel she instead her yanny. Long story short, she posted on her Instagram and it quickly went viral after that.
Obviously the more people see something, the more likely it is to start trending or the more likely it is to go viral, but the platform it's on is also just as vital. Katie's video was obviously the beginning point of it possibly going viral, but Fernando Castro, a senior at Flowery Branch High School (the same school Hetzel goes to) reposted it on his Instagram and actually made a poll of what other people thought they heard, Laurel or Yanny. From there, RolandCamry or Roland Szabo, a friend of Castro's, posted it on Reddit and from that point, it went viral.
Some of the other trends I struggle to understand, but this one has always seemed to make sense. When my sister told me about this video, you can imagine I was quite skeptical as to if this was just another dumb trend, but here I could actually see why this was so debatable. after hearing both words, I came to realize both sides weren't wrong (even though it's technically supposed to be laurel). But looking beyond that to see how this started trending, I see the "spreadability" side of this. It's hard to imagine this audio not going viral, but it easily could have been looked over. I'm sure a lot of intriguing findings like this have been looked over because they were not put on a platform to where people can see it. I think if we took RolandCamry out of this picture, perhaps the audio would have gone viral, but probably not until a much later date. The ability to get it out and known to the public determines if it will go viral or not.
I know for my family going viral is not a primary goal at all, but if they see an opportunity, they go for it. We were watching TV a day after the conclusion of the NFL Draft and on TV they were talking about the Cowboys drafting a wide receiver named Noah Brown (which happens to be my name) in one of the later rounds. My parents saw this as an opportunity to make a video they thought would potentially go viral. What they decided to do was play the audio on the TV of Roger Goodell (Commissioner of the NFL) at the podium announcing that the Cowboys drafted Noah Brown. While this was playing I would pretend to be on the phone with the Cowboys' owner, Jerry Jones while my family was around cheering with ecstasy (Some of my family actually thought I did get drafted which is part of what makes this quite interesting). In hopes it would quickly go viral, they posted it to YouTube, but only received 100 or so views. While we did put it on a platform to where it had somewhat of an opportunity to go viral, we didn't have anyone interested enough to have it go viral. If nobody shares it or spreads the word, then it is dead in the water. While I think my family wanted it to go viral, I don't think they necessarily cared enough to do all means necessary to have the video go viral.
Having someone from a high platform can also help a video go viral. Cloe Feldman, a YouTuber with 929K subscribers, posted the Laurel or Yanny poll on her Twitter. This helps with getting exposure which is why you see big companies like Nike or Lincoln use celebrities to expose their brand. It's a tricky but helpful strategy to help with getting something to go viral.
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