This weeks topic of discussion was centered on virality and how topics online spread from one user to another and so on and so on. Virality is basically the tendency of an image, video, or piece of information that spreads rapidly from one internet user to another. But, that opens the big question: why do people share online? According to Cloudrock the "Psychology of Sharing: 5 Reasons People Share Online" are as follows: 1- To provide others with entertaining and valuable content, 2- To define themselves to others, 3- To grow and nourish their relationships, 4- For self-fulfillment, and 5- To get the word out on causes they care about. Don't worry I'll tell you why this all matters and who Alonso is.
Who Is Alonso?
Unfortunately, on this past Monday, a student at my former high school committed suicide in the weight room. A coach found him hanging from a weight rack. After he ran to get an athletic trainer, life saving measures were performed but Alonso did not survive. A few students followed in to help the trainer and were faced with an image they will probably never forget. Alonso was a son, brother, and student. His mother is also a teacher at the school. His sister Alli is my age and posted a video on her Snapchat story, which was posted online with her permission, explained how Alonso was bullied at school multiple times. She also sorrowfully explains that the bullying was reported multiple if not every time, but nothing was ever done about it. I can confirm that the administration at my high school turns a blind eye to situations like that. They fail to acknowledge that a lot of their students are bullied almost every day because it's a "burden" to them. But why does all of this matter? What does any of this have to do with virality?
Alonso and Virality
How does the incident and virality connect? Between all the students mourning the tragic death of their former classmate, three students contributed to the spreading of the information to, as Cloudrock stated as the 5th reason why people share online, get word out on causes they care about. One student took to TikTok to explain how the school administration was failing to acknowledge what had happened inside their school. How they were getting mad at students for visiting Alonso's memorial inside the school. How they banned students for wearing red ribbons in remembrance of Alonso because red was his favorite color. She also explained how a day later, on Tuesday, the school had taken in 7 kids who had supposedly given shooting threats, which again, wasn't addressed. This video on TikTok quickly spread and gained 600,000+ views. All of these views led to viewers being led to a Go Fund Me set up by another student at school. The fundraiser was set up to help out his family who weren't financially stable and to help with funeral expenses. The goal was set to $10,000 but because of the exposure the video gained online from being shared to hundreds of thousands of viewers allowed the amount donated to go up to $31,000+. The amount is still rising. The online video which has also made it onto platforms such as the NextDoor app and Twitter has allowed even more views. A petition was even started up to get reform for bullying policies within the school district. The use of virality helped spread the news and allowed exposure for the cause the students felt so strongly about. KSAT news in San Antonio did a story on what happened and interviewed students who were very close to Alonso. One of the students stated that Alonso was bullied for his ethnicity, for the clothes he wore, and called the N word multiple times. The work of the students to bring awareness to the tragedy that happened at their school allowed for multiple online platforms to acknowledge what happened so that it doesn't just get ignored.
So What?
Feelings of anger, sadness, happiness, pleasure, etc lead to people sharing content online. The probability of something/someone going viral in our time is a lot higher than someone from past generations who didn't have the same technological opportunities. Although the main point of virality is for marketers to promote their products, that doesn't mean that only consumer products can be shared to go viral. Tragic incidents like those of Alonso deserve to be shared to raise awareness for bullying and in another case, so the ways of the high school are in a sense, exposed, for the sake of future students and parents of those students. Alonso's death definitely gained very positive exposure with the tremendous amount of money raised and the 8,000+ signatures signed on the petition for him. This just shows how students care for their classmate allowed for such positive exposure for someone they cared so deeply about. Multiple students stated that Alonso always had a smile on his face and he was the sweetest soul.
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