Last week, there is a good chance that Facebook served up to you a Buzzfeed post entitled “A Father Sings To His Dying Newborn Son After His Wife Dies Following Childbirth.” Below the site’s iconic yellow buttons—”LOL,” “win,” “omg,” “cute”—sits, indeed, a video of a father singing to his dying newborn son after his wife died following childbirth. As the incubator hums and clicks, you can, if you want, watch a man in anguish sing for the end of his small family. In a tab next to Gmail, you can watch his helpless son die.
Really great writing and I believe a post that we’ll look back on in 100 years as a great turning-point summary of our civilization. When everyone is broadcasting, everything is accessible to anyone anywhere. What do you think will be the most shareable content?
The video of Saddam Hussein being hanged didn’t trend on Twitter. It was before Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Reddit, Vine. There was no remix, mashup, “kids react to” or parody. There wasn’t even a single anonymous commenter to flame against another anonymous commenter about the positives and negatives of this pivotal moment in our civilization.
The video appeared on eBaum’s world at the time. it was grainy, hard to make out with took a while to load. Imagine if that same video was posted today.