In a world that has grown to enable easy, fast content sharing and relatively easy, fast content finding, which as a result has increased the ability to find, develop, and explore ever-increasingly-specific niche interests, I feel like this is not very surprising at all. "There is a group of (user-celebrities) who specialize in (interest/type of entertainment) that (large number) of (varyingly-specific demographic) know ALL ABOUT, of which you know nothing!"

In this case I suppose it is notable because it could be the new wave of potential celebrities or youth idols coming up and developing, and we old folk know nothing about them because we're out of touch. On the other hand, should I be that impressed by 4 million views on YouTube?

Admittedly, it shocks me that this video has only just under 2 million views, so maybe 4 million still is a relatively significant number, even on YouTube.

The author writes as if this happens by accident, these totally normal people catch on and become viral overnight. That they don't spend years building up fan bases, posting their videos wherever they can to build a following, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, whatever new form of social media is developing that I'm not up on yet. The author also seems to buy into the fact that once you have a huge fanatic fan base like this you're still a normal person. Once you become recognizable in real life for your internet persona/presence, you're still a real person. I don't buy either of these things, really. Yes sometimes things go viral, but there's gotta be more for the audience to stick around.

I bet these kids are Twitter masters. I bet they've got tens of thousands of followers and I bet they started by following everyone they could and developing a brand, a comedy, whatever. These kids wanted to be famous and connected and plugged in. They're lucky enough they made it happen. YouTube is a venue which works because to younger kids it seems "real." But I would be hesitant to say that these YouTube stars got there without a lot of effort.

Hell I've got a Vine and all I do is post videos of me eating food there. I think it's pretty hilarious. It don't bring in any viewers. I'm not going to become a Vine celebrity overnight.

You have to have a schtick and you have to market it. It's just a different kind of marketing than maybe we are used to.

Interested to hear your thoughts though kleinbl00