What are Internet phenomena and how do they spread so fast?

Internet phenomena are social and cultural trends specific to online spaces, encompassing viral videos, memes, catchphrases, and jokes. Because instant digital communication accelerates word of mouth transmission, these fads can grow rapidly and spread widely across the web. Phenomena range from creative linguistic suffixes to comment-section traditions like internet checkpoints.

What we know

• Internet phenomena are social and cultural occurrences specific to the Internet, including popular catchphrases, viral videos, images, and jokes. [2]
• Fads and sensations online tend to grow rapidly and spread widely because instant communication facilitates fast word of mouth transmission. [2]
• Internet checkpoints emerged in the early 2010s on YouTube, where users treat timestamped comment sections as temporal landmarks for personal reflection. [4]
• The frequency illusion, which makes people notice a concept more often after learning about it, has grown more common due to algorithmic curation online. [5] · medium confidence

Where to go next

• the bigger pictureWhat is an Internet meme?
• a case in pointHow do internet checkpoints work on YouTube?
• how it workedWhy do we keep seeing the same words after learning them?
• what caused itWhat role does algorithmic curation play in online trends?
• an unexpected connectionHow did the Godzilla monster influence software names?

Sources

• [1]list of Internet phenomena (Wikidata Q6023923) · CC0 1.0
• [2]List of Internet phenomena · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]-zilla · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]Internet checkpoint · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]Frequency illusion · CC BY-SA 4.0