You’re excused, if you’re tired of the term “viral.”

At one point or another, everything seems to be described that way.

YouTube videos. X tweets. Podcasts. TikTokers. Substacks. Emails.

Curious how electronic uploads turned “viral” right after an actual virus (called Covid-19) tore across the planet.

Curious too it is that videos, commentaries and other such fare that go viral do so either because they are derogatory, exaggerations, flat-out fabrications, or otherwise doing the work of the devil (on all sides of the political and religious spectra).

The devil loves disunity, anger, and hatred. “Clickbait can go straight to hell,” said a clever headline in the New York Post last week, adding:

“Pope Leo XIV denounced the “degrading” online media practice Thursday during a Vatican conference with dozens of journalists. ‘Communication must be freed from the misguided thinking that corrupts it, from unfair competition and the degrading practice of so-called clickbait,’ the Pope declared to roughly 150 members of the newswire group Minds International.”

Think of the very term and wonder also if you want to be a “virus”?

By definition a virus causes injury, suffering, and often outright death. Viruses have to infect a living cell to replicate. They are halfway between living and nonliving matter. They are half-dead—but spread all over the place. They disseminate through disease-bearing microorganisms and insects. The English word “virus” comes from the Latin word vīrus, which refers to poison and other noxious liquids.

Richard Dawkins first used the term “viral” in its modern sense to describe the spread of ideas, drawing an analogy to how viruses replicate and spread in his 1976 book, The Selfish Gene.

Do you want to be poison?

If so, there’s a good chance what you spew will become “viral”—online or in life itself.

You will not be lonely.

Do you know how many YouTubers have a million or more “followers” (whatever that means)?

According to Photutorial’s January 2024 estimates, about 51,800 YouTube channels have over one million subscribers.

One source (Agorapulse) lists 8,931 creators on TikTok with more than a million followers. Others say tens of thousands.

Feel bombarded?

That’s because you are.

The noise (and division, and chaos) continue to grow all around us.