“Viral video” is one of those buzz words that gets thrown around a lot but nobody is really sure what it means.  The most commonly used definition for “viral video” is a video that becomes popular in a short period of time. How can someone easily achieve this though? Why is it that videos such as Charlie Bit Me and Numa Numa Dance can garner millions of views, while other videos usually hover around a thousand views? In short, how do videos become viral?

Something that I have noticed with viral videos is that they are enjoyable to all types of audiences, from toddlers to grandparents. Take Charlie Bit Me for example: it is video about a toddler getting bit by his baby brother. Though the video does not have a wow factor, it is very cute and it is something that all age-groups can get a good laugh from. Being popular with a wide span of age groups is key for a video to become viral.

“The biggest reason videos become viral in today’s day and age is because a lot more people are able to view videos thanks to websites such as Facebook and Twitter. If they see a video they like, they can instantly share it to another person, and so on,” said Clayton High School psychology teacher David Aiello.

More buzz equals more viral. Comedy sketch groups such as Lonely Island (which is affiliated with Saturday Night Live) always get several million views on their videos due to the buzz they create on social media sites, Twitter especially.

Smosh, another Youtube comedy group that gets hundreds-of-thousands of views in all their videos, utilizes social media to get viewership; they have had a facebook page for little over a year and already have more than one million likes.

Even scientifically speaking, there is a reason why some videos garner more views then others, explains Aiello.

“When you see something you enjoy, you brain produces a chemical called dopamine. Once dopamine is produced, your brain remembers the action that led to its production,” said Aiello. “That’s why videos you like never get old, and you end up watching them a lot, which in a macro-scale, leads to videos becoming viral because people are watching them over and over again.”

(Photo: Lane Christiansen/for the Chicago Tribune/MCT)