The Weird Thing about Going Viral

by | Jan 30, 2020 | Personal

Exclusivity Breeds Interest


Back in 2016, I went to the world premiere for Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice with a few friends.

The movie was highly anticipated at the time and like most blockbuster releases everyone wants to break the internet with a review good or bad. I enjoyed the movie a lot and still do to this day. After watching the film, I decided to tweet about it and my phone received nonstop notifications for the next two days.

Mostly good. Some odd. But mostly I experienced a taste of this “going viral” phase that most people hope to achieve.

The Limelight

The fun part was the enthusiasm of people reaching out to ask about the film and why I liked it. I’m no film critic and never claimed to be but it was fun bonding with strangers about the film and the great night I had with friends.

It is amazing how these characters Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman bring the world together regardless of race, age, and location. Everyone has an individual and unique reason for loving these characters. For myself, Batman has always been a symbol of willpower and determination despite the tragedies of life. Superman is a symbol of hope to most. Wonder Woman was always an extension of my love for women lead shows that I loved such as Xena the Warrior Princess and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The movie Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice in a lot of ways was a combination of all the experiences I’ve had with these characters from cartoons when I was 6 to adulthood.

Every fan has their opinions on how these characters should be presented based on years of living in their world but these characters very similar to our world deserve to grow up and the movie reflected that in my opinion.

The Backlash

When the film was released, people started to revisit my tweet and talk about how horrible the film was. However, the odd part is my tweet was treated as law. The negative comments are expected when you say anything online however people treating your word as something written in stone was weird to me.

Once again, I am not a critic. I never claimed to be. There is no way I expected or hoped that everyone had the same experience as me when viewing the film. However, the internet as we know works purely in the world of black and white thinking. Nuance fortunately and unfortunately requires more than 280 characters.

Conclusion

Twitter can at times feel like screaming into a hallway hoping to be heard but I’ve always viewed it as thinking out loud. Some thoughts are relatable, some aren’t. Scroll on and think nothing more of it. However, the sweet spot seems to be screaming into a popular space whether you intend to be agreed with or not. As always, the more controversial the better.