Viral phenomenon
Viral phenomena are objects or patterns that are able to replicate themselves or convert other objects into copies of themselves when these objects are exposed to them. They get their name from the way that viruses propagate. This has become a common way to describe how thoughts, information, and trends move into and through a human population. The "viral media" is a common term called whose popularity has been fueled by the rapid rise of social network sites alongside declining advertising rates and an extremely fragmented audience for broadcast media. Different from the "spreadable media", "viral media" uses viral metaphors of "infection" and "contamination", which means that audiences play as passive carriers rather than an active role to "spread" contents.Memes are possibly the best-known example of informational viral patterns.
Background
The 1992 novel Snow Crash explores the implications of an ancient memetic meta-virus and its modern-day computer virus equivalent: