What does ‘Gone viral’ mean?
When something is described as having ‘gone viral’ it means that a video, image, meme or link has spread rapidly across the internet, usually being shared via social media or email.
The term is believed to have originated in the 1950s in relation to marketing campaigns and, since the inception of the internet, has become a part of the everyday lexicon of internet users.
With the rise to dominance of social media platforms in the late 1990s, a video, image, meme or link can be transmitted to millions of people all around the world almost instantaneously, meaning something can ‘go viral’ within minutes.
