Why sharing the highs and lows of our personal lives on social media often go viral

Births, deaths, marriages, break-ups and family life.

We love watching people share their personal moments on social media, with such posts often attracting hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of views.

On this week's show, we look at some of these viral videos from the past couple of weeks - and sometimes the unexpected backlash to them. 

We also enjoy a couple of musical performances that have attracted millions of views, from the busker to the curry house owner!

The viral posts on this week's show:
Dad and daughter having a laugh: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeMc25Lq/

The heartbroken packbacker: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeMckLrR/

Busker singer with an incredible voice:

https://x.com/taylormod/status/1747755409048301845?s=46

The woman caught up in Storm Isha: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGerU4AQp/ 

Husband's Borat impressions to his new wife: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeMcW685/

The baby photo:
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeM3xPss/

Murder on the Tandoor: https://www.tiktok.com/@urbantandoorbristol/video/7323234954240888097?lang=en

Seen a story we should cover? Get in touch with us!

Email: sorryyouwentviral@gmail.com
Twitter: Twitter.com/SorryUWentViral
Instagram: Instagram.com/SorryYouWentViral
TikTok: TikTok.com/@SorryYouWentViral

Transcript

0:10

Hello and welcome to Sorry You Went Viral, all about the stories that have been going viral online over the last week or so and the human stories behind those popular posts. I'm Tim. And I'm Hannah. And as always, we kick things off with What's Gone Viral.

And we were wondering this: 0:29

Can one person go viral multiple times for basically doing the same thing? Well, the answer is apparently yes. And Ali Sherlock can prove it.

Take a look at this: 1:04

That is quite a performance. That is, obviously, if you couldn't guess, Viva La Vida by Coldplay. This was shared, this was shared originally on TikTok and then this was shared on Twitter by a guy called The Magic Mod, and it's been seen 16 million times. He calls it, "The best cover I've ever seen in my life." Wow, what a voice. And, yeah, what a voice. What a voice indeed. Unlike yours at the moment, we should say, because you're spluttering everywhere. We apologise in advance to listeners and viewers. But, yeah, what an incredible voice she's got. And it's so distinctive as well. And clearly, this isn't the first time that she's gone viral. She's quite used to creating a lot of content, whether she's busking out in Dublin and elsewhere, and she's only 18 years old, but she's massive online already. She's got something like 6 million YouTube subscribers. And I think the interesting thing about this is that she's obviously gone viral again, thanks to The Magic Mod, but as far as we know, she hasn't yet commented on it. So I don't know whether this is just something that she's completely au fait with. And she's like, yeah, this is just standard for me now. I'm a massive deal, and I go viral every other Wednesday or something like that. I don't know. I think it's just, yeah, she said she's got so many million views for her own music, as well as the covers that she's done, and I think busking in the streets of Ireland is kind of her favourite thing to do. There's lots of videos of her doing, lots of different covers of lots of different songs, but she's even got her own album out now called Ali. I think it is so, yeah, good luck to her. Yeah, good luck to her. And also, just in a really interesting way that young people now are just using social media and the content that they can produce for their own benefit, to push their own skills and talent out there, rather than what we'd have seen traditionally of, like, desperate to be a singer songwriter or whatever it is, and you're desperate to get a record deal. She's sort of going, I'm already producing content and I'm already getting my music out there, whether it's covers or whether it's original stuff. So, yeah, fair play to her for that. Yeah. Moving on to, this is a bit of a dad and daughter combo, isn't it? Which we love here. I'm sorry you went viral. Tell us about this one. Yeah, it's just dad and daughter having some fun. I mean, I love it. They're just having such a good time with each other. She's obviously. This is Holly. She goes by @holymorridge or Holly Morris in real life, but she obviously is used to creating content. She's got her own TikTok. She puts content out. And that's all done pretty well in the past. This one, though, the first time she recruited dad, whether it was unwilling or not into this video, has had 400,000 views and I think it's one of her best performing bits of content as well. So I don't know, maybe she'll bring him in as a regular or maybe he'll just be like, screw you, I'm going to get my own TikTok and do my own thing now because this is quite fun. He looked like he was getting quite into it after a while. Yeah. Very deadpan delivery. I mean, we've seen with other comedians things like Jack Whitehall and bringing in his dad into his work and then going off and doing shows with him. There is fun and entertainment to have with it, but at the end of the day, it's just dad and daughter having fun and laughing and sharing jokes and what's wrong with that? Yeah, I know, it's great. And I love the fact that clearly it resonates with people as well. People like seeing the nuances in relationships and they like seeing that online as well. So it's interesting that that's one of her best performing bits of content as well. Oh, I'm heartbroken even leading into the next one. Yeah, this is an awful story of a big backpacking trip between a couple, saved for years and on the first day it all goes wrong. Yeah, heartbreaking. This was Emmie John, who posted this video just last month of her and her then boyfriend at the airport and then finding texts of him with another girl, another woman, and, yeah, their big holiday, their big plans, a big travel, completely ruined, as you can see there. She did try and carry on, but she wants to come home, be with friends and family. It's been seen 6 million times and I think, again, it's the way people use social media now, particularly TikTok, about sharing very personal moments. And it really resonated with lots of people. Well, we've all been there, haven't we? We've all been heartbroken, maybe not for exactly the same circumstances, but, yeah, you can't help but feel for her and you really want her to get through the trip as well and be like, turn this into a positive and all the rest of it, because she's only young as well. But I think I'm right in saying that she's since posted more content as well, more videos, and it's shown that she has got back out there. I think she's currently travelling, been enjoying travelling with family friends as well. So hopefully she's over him and she can sort of meet Mario on her travels or something. Yeah, we'll see. Hopefully see more positive content from her, but, yeah, all the best, Emmie. Next. It was kind of windy everywhere this week, to put it politely. Absolutely had gazebos blowing over and everything. But for an idea of how windy it was in Northern Ireland, take a look at this. You want to know what the weather's like. That was Cheryl Smith who posted that on TikTok. I think it's all about Storm Aisha that we all experienced. And Tim, you and I, having worked in news for as long as we did, then we're very familiar with either sending reporters out into storms or being in the eye of the storm ourselves as well. And it always seems a bit bonkers, doesn't it? Why can't we just sort of see on a screen and see on a webcam that it's crazy out there? Don't go out there. You don't need to sort of be in it. But maybe the fact that Cheryl did it and it got 7.7 million views. So maybe in terms of content actually going viral and actually getting that shot, you do, newsrooms do still need to keep sending out people to get the hilarious image of someone in the eye of the storm. The obvious backlash on all this for poor Cheryl was that a lot of people were really scared for her and thought it was really irresponsible and bit silly to be going out, which arguably it was. She has since posted a couple of follow ups as well. Well, here I am where I was standing last night. The wee story behind it was that I had been out in the car. My friend asked me what the weather was like in Carrick, so I jumped out and took a video. Everybody was a wee bit concerned for my safety and I thank you so for that. I was quite safe. I was quite safe. I did head in, though, and I'm not going to lie, all's good now, but I really thought the windows were about to go in last night. At one stage it was just beaten against the house. All's good, though. We're all happy, we're all safe, but thank you very much. I didn't realise it was going to look quite so silly. Didn't realise it was going to go quite as viral, but thanks. She admits she didn't realise she looked that silly. And it was again that we saw last week. It's just a video that she made that she thought was funny, that she's going to send to a friend that she posted on TikTok, was never expecting it to go that crazy, but she's fine and like everything, it's called blow over like the storm. Keep up the cake content, Cheryl, anyway, on your TikTok now.

Next: 9:56

this feels very retro, but has Lewis, your husband, ever done Borat impressions to you? I mean, Borat's quite old school, isn't it? It feels like it. Lewis isn't really one for impressions anyway. Has he annoyed me? Yes. Has he used that content against me or at my expense? Hopefully not, but I couldn't honestly say that I know for sure. Take a look at this from Liam. So this is Liam Stapleton, who's a DJ in Australia, and his poor wife, Sarah. I mean, new wife. New wife, yeah, maybe ex-wife, the way he was going! As you said, it's one thing to annoy them, but then filming it and then doing it again and again. I'm surprised she didn't hit him. But, yeah, it's funny, it got 2 million views. I think she probably took it in the good nature it was intended. But, yeah, hopefully she knew that. Not obviously, she knew she was being filmed and everything like that, but hopefully she knew that he was uploading it as well and actually going to post it. If not, she might soon be the ex Mrs Liam Stapleton. But anyway, we'll wait and see. Now, it's the part of the show where we talk about What It's Like To Go Viral and we've all been there. If you've got kids, you take loads of pictures as soon as they come out, then you're going to just take pictures of them forever and ever. But imagine your first photo as a baby being like this, which I was trying to look at it, thinking, maybe this is a bit similar to what Sonny looked like, because they all just look like old people, don't they? Yeah. This is a little boy called Ryker and the mum is Alexa Rose. And she announced the birth of her son with these hilarious pictures of him. But it didn't all go so well. Right, yeah. Alexa, this video that she posted, got 23 million views on TikTok, which is just incredible. Astonishing. I mean, I love the funny baby photos, like you said, and lots of people did, but unfortunately, there were quite a few nasty comments. She posted this video of her blocking people and saying, it's all fun and games until people get cruel. And she was forced to then, I say forced, she then posted another video responding to some of the claims and accusations over the car seat they're using. I just wanted to answer this question really quickly because I did get a few questions about him in his car seat and I just want to start off by saying I had him in the hospital, so the people that were asking why he's in a car seat at all, I had to bring him back home, somehow. But, yeah, that's the proper car seat for him at that size with all of the newborn inserts and everything that came with it inside of it. And then I did get a couple of comments asking why he doesn't have an extra newborn insert, like you can buy head supports for in their car seat. And it's honestly just personal preference. I did my own research on newborn inserts and car seat inserts and things like that and we just decided against them. Yeah, it was kind of a weird one for me because I was looking at this, I've looked at it a couple of times now. I was like, why are people getting so upset about the car seat? And then I was like, maybe because at first glance, you sort of think Ryker's a newborn baby and that car seat to me looks a little bit big, but he's tiny. So I was like, maybe people are getting upset about it because she's arguably got him in a too grown up car seat or something like that for a newborn. But I don't know, I was just trying to work out. I was just trying to empathise with some of the people who have been kind of taken online just to sort of criticise her. Who knows? A lot of people just spread hate because they can't be bothered to do anything mean. I was really impressed with Alexa's response, especially being a new mum, being quite vulnerable and having all these criticisms. And she responded very calmly. She explained in the video that she had done the research about the car seat and which car seat to use, apparently. I'll be honest, I don't know enough. I took my daughter home in, I think in either the same car seat, but with one of those inserts. But she said you didn't need one. You said you took her home in a car seat. Because I thought you were going to say, I took my daughter home in a basket and it was fine. It's all right, you're okay. I don't think I'd hear the end of it if I did, but I think I'm really impressed with what she did and how she responded to it. She's a clearly conscious mum and again, the situation where sharing content on social, personal ones and just unfortunately, people just want to snipe and be critical instead of just celebrating the joy of a newborn baby. Yeah, well, hopefully she can turn it into a positive. She's got her little boy to start off with, which is the most important thing. He's healthy, as far as we know, and 23 million views and hopefully she can use that to her advantage as well in terms of creating more content. And as you said, she's only 23, and she's already done really well in terms of her responses and how calm she's been. And finally on the show, time for the Timeline Cleanser. And this one is where Saltburn meets a curry house in what they call Murder on the Tandoor. So this is the Urban Tandoor curry house in Bristol, which is actually my home city as well. It's in Clifton, in Bristol. And that video of Murder on the Tandoor got 6 million views on TikTok. And since having gone viral, then the owner of the curry house has been interviewed by local media, etc. And Sujith told XFM that after Covid, all the news was about death and destruction. So what we thought of as a brand is to spread some joy and happiness. And what a brilliant idea. I mean, I could tell you that there are quite a few curry houses in Bristol, of course, and certainly in and around Clifton where this one's based. So to stand out from the rest of your competitors is really important. And they've done it so well. And by all reviews and reports, it sounds like the food is delicious as well. And they've since had visitors coming from all over the world just to come in. Really clever marketing does make me hungry for a curry. Even though we're recording early on a Friday morning, I do fancy a curry already. That's it for this week's show. Thank you for watching or for listening. If you're listening on the podcast, we'll be back next week. We'll be putting all the links to those viral videos on our social feeds. And you can find out on Sorry You Went Viral. And we'll see you next week. Bye Bye.