It’s no secret that more and more people are using the internet, and along with it, online social media. A couple of years back, Twitter was just a tool used by geeks – now pretty much everyone is on it. Facebook has evolved and evolved users with it – more people put up status updates, photos, and share links. The last mentioned in particular, leads to a phenomenon of virality.
Every year gives us our fair share of instant-hit online moments. Which either provide immense fun for a day, or last for a few weeks, becoming culturally rooted and taking the form of memes. 2011 was no different – it provided us with enough moments to turn back and laugh at. Let’s look at a few of those moments. In no particular order, of course.
1. Kolaveri: This doesn’t even need to be introduced. Rarely has a song (Tamil, at that!) swept the imagination of an entire country like Dhanush’s inebriated-style composition. The simplicity, the identify-ability, the sheer silliness (and perhaps the strong South Indian online population) and some simple, effective marketing like providing lyrics all made this a rage. Like the Aagster RGV himself said (or tried to say), “I am confused about whether I like koloveri song becos I like it or becos everybody else likes it”.
2. Anna Hazare: Before all credibility was lost and he became more a subject of cartoons than editorials, Anna Hazare successfully captured the imagination of a country fed up with corruption. Ironically, for a simple man with humble roots, it was the so-called elite on Twitter and Facebook that made up his armies of supporters. From status updates to blog posts, Anna fever had gripped the nation.
3. TwitterADay365: The most successful individual-led project launched by an Indian on Twitter this year. 20-year old Mumbai photographer Roycin D’Souza shoots pictures of one Twitter personality every day, and uploads them on his Flickr stream. The project has received tremendous support by the Twitterati so far, including a brief project with musicians and a poster in a popular Mumbai eatery, Gostana. TAD365 is going strong, well into 2012.
4. Rage Comics: Anyone who’s been online and stalked places like Reddit for over a year know what Rage comics are all about. Badly drawn characters, used as templates to depict things in everyday life. Offshoots include the famous ‘Y U NO guy’. In India, humorist Krish Ashok successfully ‘desified’ Rage comics and came out with a series of comics depicting life as a Tamil Brahmin youth caught at the crossroads of tradition and modernity – this led to Tambrahmrage. It was such a hit that various other communities soon came out with their own versions (sadly, short lived).
5. The World Cup: It was no surprise that a huge World Cup being hosted in India, with the team in top form, generated insane amounts of tweets, updates, photos, I-was-there accounts and blogposts. Trending topics were almost reserved everyday for even neutral matches. And when MS Dhoni finally hit that six into the stands, a semi-inebriated India went ballistic. Not just on the streets.
6. Flash Mob: A recent phenomenon which seems to have caught quite the frenzy. 23-year old Shonan Kothari orchestrated India’s first gathering of random people who assemble, dance, and just disperse (without asking for donations!). This was done part entertainment, part tribute to the 26/11victims. It gathered a lot of popularity online, not in the least because the follow-up Delhi flash mob was a total failure (and I don’t need to tell you how amenable Mumbai vs Delhi debates are to the online world). A bunch of people in a Chennai mall had better luck, but by then the phenomenon had lost steam and since it was clearly for promotional purposes, there wasn’t any zest in it anyway. Even with Kolaveri.
7. Sachin’s 100th 100: Forget cricket (which is a given for online buzz), the entire country’s been on tenterhooks for Sachin Tendulkar’s 100th international century. Collective online disappointment followed the two 90s that he scored, not to mention a successful Twitter hashtag – #ThingsbeforeSachins100th
8. Poonam Pandey: When historians sit down to reflect on the public reactions following India’s two World Cup victories, 2011 will always have the element of Poonam Pandey, who promised to shed her clothes should India win. This collective facepalm on the nation will possibly always tilt things in favour of the 1983 win.
9. Friday: The only international entrant in this list is that outrageously horrible, craptaciously abominable, puke-inducing trough of collective human cultural output, ‘Friday’, by Rebecca Black. Parental ambition, some money, a scheming organization that packages such music videos and YouTube are a dangerous combination. Millions of views later, Rebecca Black – it’s obvious that Susan Boyle has more talent in one of her clipped toenails – became a celebrity. It’s a good thing Charles Darwin wasn’t alive to witness the tipping point of devolution.
10. Open letter to a Delhi boy: Who can talk about a list of things that sparked India’s collective online imagination in 2011 without referring to the epic Open Letter to a Delhi boy? An ultra-sarcastic letter + seemingly attractive woman + north-south debate = weeks of online hilarity. Thousands of comments, loads of blogposts in response either supporting or vilifying, and hundreds of other unrelated blogposts with the title ‘open letter’. They should probably get Shahana, the author and the ‘Delhi boy’ in advisement onto a reality show. Much fun will ensue.
There we are! Here’s hoping that 2012 can provide as much amusement. My Google Reader and Twitter feed wait with anticipation.