If you are a regular Facebook fanatic, you might have noticed that everyone started changing his or her picture to a picture of his or her celebrity look-alike during the start of last week.
Some were very lucky in finding their celebrity look-alike because people tell them all the time they resemble Laura Bush or Colbie Caillat. Some, on the other hand, had to struggle to find a proximate actor, musician or athlete that showed minimal resemblance. Forget Groundhog Day – if you are on Facebook, the buzz is on famous friends.
You also must definitely recall December’s favorite Pokemon month. Everyone posted pictures of his favorite Pokemon as his profile picture. Some even added their own touches of color and accessories to the characters, making them more feminine or emo.
Everyone must be wondering who comes up with these ideas. But more importantly, how do such ideas flourish around the whole Facebook network in the matter of days? The viral phenomena is similar to ‘forward this and the name of your lover will appear on the screen’ e-mail messages. Awkwardly enough, I still get these types of chain e-mails after years of people realizing that they are just stupid pranks, scams or social experiments. These messages were started by people with a little extra free time and a bizarre imagination.
But thank God, the people who started celebrity doppelganger week do not seem very weird. They are just people who are super creative and have extra free time they spend on Facebook, like most of us do.
The biggest beneficiary of this week was My Heritage Web site, which allows users, after registering, to upload a photo and find a celebrity look-alike after applying face recognition technology. The 350 million Facebook users rushed to find their celebrity, causing a surge in the server of the Web site. Many were disappointed because not everyone came to look like Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie.
The popularity of such viral trends is an extraordinary unique phenomenon of the technology era we are fortune to witness. Fortunately for the millions of users who do not watch “American” Idol, someone uploaded the “Pants on the Ground” video through video sharing Web sites like YouTube which made it available to everyone on the Internet. With everyone posting the video on his profile, everyone who is connected saw it.
The thing about Internet trends is that anyone can join. For example, this is not about wearing slim khaki pants or Ugg boots. Fashion trends rely heavily on the shape of the person. Fashion is much controlled by the industry which dictates certain models which can only follow the trends. Similarly, new gadget trends require money to get the latest touch-screen cell phone, to get the latest surround sound system for your car or to get the new iPad.
Internet trends are really for everyone, because the Internet is open for everyone. You can start a Facebook group calling for a national (or international) pickles holiday. (Tell me if you succeed because I know a friend who might be interested in a national day for cantaloupes.)
It is society that made having such silly trends available for everyone on Facebook. You no longer need to be cool to participate in such trends or online events, which sucks because creepers and stalkers ruin the whole social experience for everyone.
Now that you understand the underlying reasons behind such trends and how you heard about them, you can ponder about it all night. Maybe one needs to start a “Boycott Facebook for 24 hours day” group on Facebook.
Abdallah Abu Ghazaleh is a freshman majoring in electrical engineering. He can be contacted at [email protected].