I was talking to a friend the other day about the Harry Potter movies (she was laughing at 'you Americans' because I told her I had a ticket to a midnight showing on July 15/16) and I started remembering how I couldn't remember when I started reading the books. I know I pre-ordered the fourth book (and picked it up at 12:08 from the bookstore) but I couldn't tell you when I picked up the first. I'm pretty sure it was when I was working in a bookstore, and I'm fairly certain it was just before the whole series had it's global explosion. (That happened around the third book, right? The first two were well-recieved, but hardly revolutionary. For some reason, everything picked up steam about number three.) I've now got the whole series in hardback, a leather-covered limited edition version of the first book, the British version of the fifth book (also hardback, signed by J.K. Rowling herself), and I own one of the completely over-designed highly exclusive 'Beedle the Bard' 'all the money to charity' books.
What I'm actually wondering here is: how does something go viral? I can't imagine that the takeoff of Harry Potter didn't have something to do with the Interwebs, that there isn't some kind of intuitive technological pulse cycle that, if you hit it JUST RIGHT, means that you literally 'surf the 'Net' to success. When one person links a TED talk on their Facebook page, suddenly three more unrelated (except by me as a 'mutual friend') people post three more completely different talk videos. And it's not regular (like, every other day, or even once a week) it comes in phases. Is there some technology, some software to chart those phases?
I wonder if the instinct for Internet mobility is anything like working the Stock Market. If it's a matter of experience and 'feeling' trends, how can any one person possibly process that much information? It seems like a job that could only be done by computer (ironically). How often does something accidentally go viral, and how often does it require hours upon days upon weeks of carefully feeding the links and information into social networks? My brain is getting queasy just thinking about it.
I'm currently managing (or trying to manage) four blogs, three email accounts, a Facebook page, and a (rather sorry at the moment) website - and I get the feeling that I'm still a complete neophyte. I've got a sudden urge to go re-read 'Beedle the Bard'.
But hey - how often does the word 'neophyte' come up on your Twitter feed? Not often, I'm guessing.
Small consolation, that.
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