Thoughts After My First (Negatively) Viral Instagram Post
In a rather unexpected turn of events, a random reel I posted on Instagram went viral.
Or, semi-viral. I don’t know which term would be technically correct (as of writing this, it’s sitting at 250k views, so do with that what you will.)
I literally had a thought about something while I was at the gym, talked about it with my boyfriend on the way home from the gym, and then filmed it. And posted it shortly after that.
More than two weeks later, it is STILL getting likes and comments, and I think we all know that in social media-land, that is rare for a video that isn’t considered viral.
It’s been an interesting experience, to say the least.
Here is the reel, if you would like to watch it. Or read through the comments (do so at your own risk!) I don’t feel like I need to dive into what was said in the reel because truthfully any topic could be accurately represented in this post.
As the attention on the reel grew, I very quickly became overwhelmed. After just a couple days, I took Instagram off my phone completely. The comments were going off the charts by my standards and people had a LOT to say. Taking the time away from the app really helped me gain some clarity on what really matters and not be personally impacted by everything was happening.
Truth be told, there’s a lot of anger that has come out of this little bout of viral-ity. But it’s not on behalf of myself; it’s thinking about the larger implications that have been represented by this one single example. Social media makes me angry on a good day - one of my own posts going viral only further fans the flame.
So I figured I would share my thoughts. I’m not sure how many people out there have actually experienced something similar, but it’s my hope that we can recognize that a post going viral, at the end of the day, doesn’t do anything good. Sure, it’s great for attention and those all-important followers, but what this experience really means undercuts almost any benefit of gaining followers.
Buckle in, and please, try to keep an open mind. I realize that’s a big ask for most people, but….here I am, asking anyway.
People Will Make Claims About You After They’ve Known You For 90 Seconds
Let’s see. In the comments of this viral reel, I was told I am:
misogynistic
anti-queer
censoring what authors can write
a religious puritan
telling people what they can and cannot read
…among other things, I’m sure. Eventually, I stopped reading comments entirely (I feel like I understand the point enough, thank you.)
Look, I really do try my hardest to check my prejudices where they are, especially when they’re subconscious. It’s a constant effort literally every single day, so I struggle to believe someone is right about such claims when they’re only based on a 90-second video.
I realize that will piss people off, but I really don’t care.
None of the people that commented rude things know literally anything about me, but yes let’s dive into going so far as to claim that my parents put puritanical thoughts into my brain as a child and I’ve never worked through them to see them in a different light. (My religious upbringing was…loose, at best.)
We can also dissect the fact that the comments regarding me telling authors what they can write and what people can read are based on something that was never actually said. I could get so technical on the ACTUAL definition of censorship, but I digress.
What I said in my reel very obviously upset people, and that’s fine. But what I didn’t expect was the way people would twist what I said into something ENTIRELY different, so they could make claims about me that aren’t even true.
BUT! (See next.)
People Will Still Choose to Hate You and/or Not Believe You No Matter How You Respond
Even if I went into the comments to refute these claims, I, for some crazy reason, have a feeling that people would simply choose not to believe whatever I said.
God forbid, we ever stop to think that maybe we were wrong. I know I know…crazy.
There were some comments on my reel that genuinely made me think and had me go, “Oh, that’s an interesting point! I didn’t think of that.” But would hate-commenters have that same reaction if I tried to refute their claims? I doubt it.
I watched this happen as people were leaving me out of a conversation entirely, and simply arguing with each other for DAYS ON END in the comments. By the time you got to the end of their thread, what they were saying didn’t even make sense anymore! Because all there was were incorrect statements and a refusal to believe in said incorrectness. So it becomes more and more irrational, without an end in sight.
People that only want to argue are not going to listen to anything you have to say because that makes their goal a moot point. So you may as well give up.
If you made them mad enough to comment rudely, they very clearly don’t care enough to be proven wrong and appreciate the change and growth that comes with it. They will choose to hate you or not believe you so they don’t have to be wrong.
Beautiful, isn’t it?
It’s Expected That You’ve Rehearsed All Nuances to Any Given 90-Second Conversation
With the nuances of our modern world, I really don’t believe it’s possible to acknowledge every single gray area of any given topic in 90 seconds alone.
But it’s designed that way, isn’t it?
When I edited my video down to its final post, I had to cut out a minute and thirty seconds of footage to fit into the time allowed for a reel. In Instagram time, that’s like…a whole two hour movie. How much context had I included in an additional minute and thirty seconds that were just forced out?
And before you say, “But Sierra, that’s what the caption is for!” I will just say….let’s be real, once someone is triggered by a video, they don’t give a fuck about the caption.
Instead of wondering, “Oh, maybe they didn’t mention this other point that would be relevant to this,” (even if you wonder wrong, it’s the principal of it,) we jump to berating a person based on only 90 seconds.
I struggle to believe that most people are able to be concise in their entire thinking on a topic in just 90 seconds unless they’re like, professional speakers or something, but maybe that’s just me projecting my own insecurity. Even if it is, couldn’t that be considered?
Some People Just Don’t Have Anything Better To Do
This is no novel concept, but it still bothers me seeing it happen SO much on ONE post.
Listen, I know there’s going to be people out there that are going to be pissed at me saying this when I wEnT oUt Of My WaY tO pOsT wHaT i PoStEd.
But I firmly believe there is a HUGE difference between sharing a 90 second clip of one thought you have and then leaving it alone vs hate-commenting on a post, and then continuously going back to hate-comment MORE for MULTIPLE DAYS. Like…you’re doing this for MULTIPLE DAYS. At one point do you think that there is literally anything else you could do with your time?
There is nothing admirable about going back to rudely comment again and again and again, especially to someone that is only playing into point #2 and doesn’t give a fuck about what you’re arguing. You’re not improving anything, you’re not changing someone’s mind for the better, you’re not making a positive change. You’re just playing into the game.
Go outside, or read a book or…stare at the wall, even. I genuinely think staring at the wall is more productive than continuously hate-commenting. Maybe it’ll bring some self-awareness to how you’re potentially doing horrible things to someone else’s mental health.
Society Is So Accepting of Being Somehow Both Overwhelmed and Unfulfilled at the Same Time
This was more of an intriguing thought I had related to the (somewhat) nicer counterarguments on my post.
Two of the common counterarguments I found, which I appreciate, are that a) people sometimes want books that don’t take that much mental energy to read and b) people want books that have plot points they don’t have in their real lives.
Those points are all well and good. My thought after reading those has nothing to do with any one person, but instead widens the perspective to a broad societal one.
Why are we so overwhelmed with our daily lives that we need books that don’t require too much thinking?
Why are we ALSO so unfulfilled with our daily lives that we need to find fulfillment in fiction?
The answer to both of those questions is the same: modern society has made it so.
Our lives are now so completely jam packed with go-go-go and need-to-need-to-need-to that it feels impossible to get into bed at night and not still have your mind whirring into oblivion. No wonder we want books that turn our brains off.
And on the same note, that busyness has made it so we struggle to feel fulfilled in what we do all day, because most of it is just to-do’s and whatever society says we should do. Of course we find ourselves drawn toward books that have rather basic substance because it makes us feel like our cup is filling up (even though I doubt it actually is.)
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good escapism night into a book. Sometimes you just need it. But I get the impression that it choice to fall into that escapism is not quite as “sometimes” as people say. (Again, not attacking any one person there. Just a gut instinct.)
I think books used to be something that were designed to challenge us in healthy ways and force our brains to expand without us even noticing. But now it’s like their whole purpose is to not do anything but turn our brains off. And that is a symptom of a much larger societal issue.
THIS Reel Goes Viral But…My Business to Help Save Lives Doesn’t
Ultimately, social media thrives on rage and anger, so why would something that is meant to be positive ever go viral?
I know that some positive things DO go viral, and that’s great. But it feels genuinely hard to swallow when I business I am working on - a business that has potential to actually save lives - doesn’t get hardly any attention while this random reel I filmed in all of five minutes literally has attention going off the map.
Again: aren’t there better things to do? Like promoting a small business that is trying to make a positive change?
I’m sure there are other small businesses out there that feel this sort of hurt. They see random, hate-filled reels getting crazy amounts of attention but their hard work is going borderline unacknowledged.
Social media doesn’t care about what you’re working hard on. It only cares about what gets the most attention, and what’s quicker to gain attention than what already has a negative context?
I mean, think about it. Let’s say you hear a piece of horrible news via gossip with your coworkers - most likely, you take to Google to learn more. But you hear about something good happening? You say, “Oh, that’s awesome!” and move on with your day.
Maybe it’s just basic human nature that social media is benefitting from, but fuck if it’s not completely exhausting and frustrating.
I would make 100 reels for my bookstore if it meant they all went viral (and I WILL make those reels even if none of them go viral) and I would never post another thing for my personal brand again, now that I better understand what actually makes something go viral.
People don’t want to be helped on social media. They want a quick reaction. Anger will get you that.
Ultimately, I Know That Writing This Response Means Nothing At All
I am well aware that writing this will not make any sort of change in the world. It feels awful to say, but I know that one person writing a blog post about an Instagram reel negatively going viral won’t fix the core issues all on its own. Change will require a massive dynamic shift, and that will require a large number of people both recognizing these issues AND choosing to work against them.
To tell you the truth, I have no idea how I will ever be able to start this change or make a non-exhausting choice to work against the horrible system that is social media. But maybe eventually I will find some answers.
I would love to know what your thoughts are here.
What would you do if a video you shared went viral?
Has this already happened to you? What did you think about? How did you react?
What do you think the fixes are?
Tell me in the comments below!
