viral videos: why they make me emotional
This one really got me:
What is it about these videos? I think it’s the sense of Something Big and Human Happening. Of something simple that’s developed (often) innocently, but that grows exponentially through people’s desire to connect and share.
It’s this desire to connect and share that grips me and touches something raw. I mean, that’s what we all desire, that’s the point of the human experience, the impetus behind us evolving from tadpoles and climbing from the primordial soup to Do Human Things. We want to contribute something that connects and shares.
Some people call this drive love. And they say that the force that brought about existence, via the Black Hole, was love.
Anyway, it’s seeing this drive in action that gets me emotional. When I see it, it holds a mirror up to my own drive. I recognise the same drive in myself and it feels raw and true.
Salon.com has posted a list of the top ten viral videos of 2009. A good list. Or listicle, as they say on American blogs, for reasons I don’t truly understand (although I did meet the Gawker blogger Emily who came up with the saying when I was in New York last year. She didn’t know why the name stuck either.)
That adorable lion and the weepy music kills me everytime I see it. Emotional indeed!
I saw this particular story about six months ago – and it was amazing. I was quite surprised at the emotion I felt whilst watching this amazing bond between animal and man.
It’s like the CS Lewis quote – “We read to know we are not alone” – these things connect us and help us to know we are not alone in the world.
Hey Michelle, I love this quote. I just twittered it. Hope you don’t mind….I credited you!
Have just finished reading the book that goes with this footage… some say it is filled with ‘truth stretching’ but if you watch the clip you have posted it all seems so very real. I know that buying a lion cub at Harrods ‘just because they could’ may not have been very responsible but the way these two men took on their role to provide for Christian was remarkable… If only the world could have such love and care for our animals so many species wouldn’t be suffering as they are.
yeah, the history of it is a bit suspect. But the interaction, regardless, is just beautiful
I absolutely love this, it’s just so thought provoking. Thank you so much for posting this!!