The Klout of a Cat
29-9-12
I recently read that the most googled thing on the internet, other than pornography, is pictures of cute cats. If only I could manage to harness the success of cute cats into my art form. What is it about cute cats that makes people fawn over them in droves on the internet? There are thousands of sites dedicated to them. I'm a cat person. I personally am the foster mother to a cat whom I affectionately call Hell Beast. She's not a very pleasant animal. She bites me constantly, she doesn't like to be held, touched or looked at. But still my friends think she's very cute and love it when I tell stories about her on facebook. How can such a wretched animal, like Hell Beast, have more facebook friends than me? Where did cats get such klout? And how can we use their power for good?
For those of you not down with Klout, Klout is an internet service that tells you how powerful you are on social media. It lets you know how much influence you have over the people that are your friends on facebook, your Twitter followers, how much "street cred" if you will. People with really high Klout scores will be offered money to use their power to endorse products, a la Kim Kardashian or Justin Beiber who have ridiculously high Klout scores. But neither of these celebrities can top the Klout score of a cute cat.
The first meme starring a cat began in 2003. For a type of internet fame to have a shelf life of almost 10 years is pretty darn good. What made cats and sardonic wit fit so well together? In 2010, the University of Austin even did a graduate study on why cats were so popular on the internet. The research states "In other words, the cultures of the internet lend themselves much more naturally to the traits associated with ‘cat people’. Further, an examination of the tone and identity of ‘cat memes’ online suggests that internet users view cats – and, by extension, cat people and therefore themselves — as: quirky, capricious, cute, strange, transfixing, difficult to comprehend from the perspective of behavioral psychology, elegant, sullen, regal, dominant, engaging, selfish, spoiled and expressive, among other traits. These are qualities much more likely to be associated with ‘people on the internet'."
I think this means I need to begin my all cat production of Hamlet immediately. Auditions to be held next week. Hell Beast will be playing Ophelia, of course. Please send all your cat's headshots in meme form. Tell them to prepare a one minute dramatic monologue.
Comments
Jesse
Your short quirky blogs are very enjoyable to read. You should do more like this one.
29 September 2012