The internet’s nastiness gets to the front page
In 1998, Hank The Angry Drunken Dwarf won People Magazine’s Online poll for the most beautiful person.
This is relevant because that was a watershed moment in the early internet. It signaled that all bets were off when it came to the Internet, brands and organizations that thought there was control understood they didn’t have any control.
I tell you this because on Friday, I noticed something online that makes me think control is disappearing from the internet.
The seedy underbelly of the internet comes to the front page.
This is a screen shot of trending topics during the Royal Wedding. QILF is Queen I’d like to F**k. And there it was: on the front page of one of the internet’s mainstream sites. This is the kind of notion that is usually left to Reddit or 4chan or other places where we can giggle at NSFW content.
But we don’t think of Twitter as the NSFW place.
What does this say about the viral nature of people? Well, this is mildly smutty, mildly clever, and mildly NSFW. It has many of the things that are easy to spread.
Did you notice QILF? Am I over thinking this? Do you think this is a big moment?
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