Go Viral!

Ahhh… Social Media… The phenomenon that defines the 21st century! 

Each era or period of time is defined by a certain occurrence that affects the globe in its entirety. Thus, when you think about that period, you automatically correlate it to that occurrence.

If you think about the late 1930s and the early to mid 1940s, your mind would automatically go to the Second World War and everything associated with it. 

The 2000s are defined by the internet and, more importantly in my opinion, social media. Everyone on social media can have a channel or space, their own little world, to connect with everyone globally.

Come to think of it, religions, the Second World War, mental health, addictions, the couple of years we horrifically lived in during COVID, the internet, and social media are the only global phenomena that affected the whole world that I can think of as I’m writing this blog.

The potato famine in Ireland certainly had a huge effect on Ireland and other neighboring countries, for example, but people in Argentina were doing ok. The Haiti earthquake in 2010 affected people in Haiti and its neighbors but people in India were fine. Wars in the Middle East are not affecting people in Madagascar or Korea and so forth.

My childhood up until my early teens had no social media. However, my generation witnessed the birth of social media…AND fully embraced it. My generation was the Vecna, the “Number Ones” of social media (a Stranger Things reference here for those who don’t get it). We fully embraced MSN Messenger and the likes until Facebook was created, and then, the world changed forever.

Everyone was on social media. People of all ages started to open Facebook accounts. All of a sudden you were able to connect with distant cousins in another continent, see their pictures, talk to them and chat with them. You were able to meet new people and make new friends that you would never imagine meeting, learn about new places, see updates on your favorite singers and movie stars…all from the comfort of your computer.

Eventually, a new “virtual” world existed parallel to the “real” world, and slowly but surely people were getting sucked into its Vortex.

With it came the birth of new terminology. Reels. Stories. Streaming. Influencer. And Viral. 

Which brings me to the topic of my new song, “Go Viral!”

The song is about people who would do anything to be famous on social media and “Go Viral!’ We see a lot of them. In older times (God! I’m sounding like an old fart now), there was some sanctity to privacy. Social media abolished that. Even celebrities like Princess Diana, the most talked about celebrity in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, had some “days off” from the public. Nowadays, some influencers bare it all on their channels 24/7. Filters cover their imperfect faces and everyone can have a sneak peak at their most private moments, and they do it at will. Princess Diana’s privacy was invaded by the paparazzi. She didn’t want us to know all the intimate details of her private life and she paid the price for that…with her life. The influencers nowadays willingly show us everything just to get their numbers up. 

The number of “likes” and the number of followers matter the most to them, regardless of the quality of the content. The number of “likes” and followers you have shows your value and worthiness in the virtual world, again regardless of the quality of the content.

The lines between the real world and the virtual world are blurred more than ever. I bet that a lot of people spend more time in the virtual world, glued to their apps, more than the real world where real people actually exist. These people even feel more connected to virtual strangers in the virtual world than the real people that exist in their lives.

And when these numbers dwindle… boy oh boy!!! Tragedy strikes. Depression hits and in some cases, even worse, suicide. These influencers define their livelihoods in the virtual world of social media. They ARE their channels. They lose the identity of their names and BECOME their handles on social media.

They don’t use social media to promote, to convey a certain message, to simply entertain. They become their numbers and their handles.

The problem here is not with the creation but with the creator.

Social media is not all doom and gloom. It is not evil. It’s a great tool (and the keyword here is tool) to reach other people about certain matters. But certain influencers abuse it, and ultimately end up abusing themselves.

Without social media, a Lebanese chef wouldn’t be able to reach people interested in eating “Tabouleh” in Mexico. A coffeeshop owner wouldn’t be able to inform all her customers that she opened a new branch in another city. A marine biologist that graduated from Dubai and who is interested in working with endangered sea turtles in the Atlantic ocean wouldn’t be able to know about that particular job posting if it weren’t for Linkedin. Greyfade wouldn’t be able to inform his fans in France or Brazil that a new super amazing track discussing the global phenomenon of social media is out and streaming everywhere :)

I haven’t talked about the actual music of the song yet. I wrote the song after the passing of our beloved Ozzy. I remember after I heard the news, I was jamming on my guitar and I came up with this very classic Sabbathy (Black Sabbath reference) ‘70s riff and the rest immediately followed. 

When we were recording the song, we opted for classic, retro sounds on the drums, bass, and guitars. However, as usual with Greyfade, we modernized it with some production elements. Thank you Ozzy for everything you’ve given us and for inspiring the whole metal world. We miss you everyday.

Now back to the topic of the song and to conclude my ramblings. The internet, social media, and now with the infancy of AI, the old world will not return. Just as with Facebook, which was created 20 or so years ago, along with other social media apps changed our world forever, ChatGPT, Gemini, and the likes will change the world again. I bet in another 20 years things will be very different and a new different virtual world will become the new reality.

We cannot stop the change and we shouldn’t. We can, however, maintain our humanity…I hope.

Your numbers don’t define you. Your handles don’t define you. The algorithm doesn’t define you. YOU define you. Whatever you post online should give a good representation about who YOU are.