NYTimes: How Cats Evolved to Win the Internet
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/16/opinion/sunday/how-cats-evolved-to-win-the-internet.html
Cats aren't the only creatures to thrive online, of course,
and dogs actually eclipse them in search traffic. But their
viral success is unique. According to data from Buzzfeed, the
most popular cat posts get almost quadruple the traffic of the
most-clicked dogs. Cat images also have unparalleled staying
power. Other creature memes -- the "O Rly" snowy owl, the
Socially Awkward Penguin -- tend to rise and fall rather
quickly. But cats remain on top, pixelated apex predators
whose peaks of online attention last for months or years.
Their virtual success is rooted in their real biology. Cats
are solitary, asocial hypercarnivores built to do one thing:
get meat. The famous cat meme I Can Haz Cheeseburger, in which
a gaping gray cat demands a quarter-pounder, had the right
idea. Every fiber of the feline being is evolved to hunt, and
cats employ a distinctive stalk-and-ambush approach, in which
they sit very still and watch for prey to innocently wander
by, then explode from the underbrush to slaughter it. This
stalking and pouncing is perfect for a six-second Vine or a
pithy tweet. Think of your favorite YouTube cat videos: A cat
springs into a box, or bops a baby on the head without
warning, or rockets out from beneath the bed. What you're
watching is an ambush.
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--Lauren--
Care About Science and Tech? Our Job One: STOP TRUMP:
https://vortex.com/stop-trump
- - -
Lauren Weinstein (lau...@vortex.com): https://www.vortex.com/lauren
Lauren's Blog: https://lauren.vortex.com
Founder: Network Neutrality Squad: https://www.nnsquad.org
PRIVACY Forum: https://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: https://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Google+: https://google.com/+LaurenWeinstein
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
I have consulted to Google, but I am not currently
doing so -- my opinions expressed here are mine alone.
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The correct term is "Internet" NOT "internet" -- please don't
fall into the trap of using the latter. It's just plain wrong!
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