go viral

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

to spread rapidly and widely across the internet or social media in the manner of a biological virus, reaching a large audience in a very short time through organic sharing rather than paid promotion; going viral is the aspiration of content creators and marketers and the anxiety of public figures and organisations that find unflattering or embarrassing material about them spreading beyond any possibility of control; the metaphor from virology captures the exponential, decentralised, and largely autonomous character of social media diffusion, in which each person who shares content becomes a new node of transmission; the same dynamics that make a funny video go viral also accelerate the spread of misinformation and coordinated harassment campaigns