The "Friday" Hypothesis
So, I'm going to make an assumption here. Seeing as you are on the internet, you've probably seen Rebecca Black's video for her song "Friday". At over one hundred million views on YouTube (Yes, that's 100,000,000 views) the video has quickly become notorious as one of the worst music videos of all time. But is it really as bad as we make it seem? Or have memetics and human gregariousness combined to create this incredibly popular super-meme? I still don't know for sure, but I'd like to explain my thoughts on the origin and growth of this meme. They combine to create something that I like to call The Friday Hypothesis.
So, let's get some facts. The video was originally posted on YouTube on February 10, 2011, by a user named trizzy66. A few people watched it. And, to be honest, they probably thought it was a bad video. But bad videos don't just blow up on YouTube every day. Those original watchers, however many there may be, probably showed the video to a few of their friends. However, humans have a tendency to exaggerate things. So, they probably showed it to a few of their friends, describing it as worse than what it actually was. Now these secondary viewers have a preconceived notion of the level of quality (Dude! Check out this video! It's terrible!) and perhaps what is going to happen in the video (It's hilarious when she says which seat can I take! How dumb is she? There's only one seat!).
Not only are we humans prone to exaggeration, we are also terribly agreeable. The secondary viewer would have probably agreed on the overall terribleness of the video. After that, it was only a few more chuckles before the cycle of memetics took hold of the situation and thrust it into millions of internet users worldwide. Each step, the exaggerated level of hate most likely grew until the point when first time viewers were given the impression that they were watching the worst music video in the world, even before they hit the play button. Preconceived notions of any outcome can cloud our own personal judgement. Let's say that someone who had never heard of the video was told to watch it. Nothing else, just Watch this video. Would they describe it as the worst music video in the world? Probably not.
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