The secret to going viral: how I got 10 million hits each month | Jenna Guillaume

Writing listicles at Buzzfeed wasn’t just a cynical numbers grab, not for me anywayI was obsessed with TV and movies growing up. I remember being about five and crying because my uncle told me that my eyes were going to become permanently square from all that screentime, and I thought it would literally happen. But it didn’t stop me from watching. My mum would try to get me to play outside – and sometimes she succeeded – but I’d only go out there to pretend I was in The Secret Garden, or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or Captain Planet, or whatever other story was capturing my attention that week.As a teenager, my addiction to screens continued and expanded to include the internet. It was the early days of chatrooms, discussion forums and MSN messenger, and I couldn’t get enough. I’d spend hours on Dawson’s Creek fansites, arguing over whether Dawson or Pacey was the superior choice (Pacey, OBVIOUSLY), while simultaneously logging in to Blink-182 chats to analyse why Adam’s Song was the most meaningful ballad of our age. The only thing limiting my time online was dial-up internet, and the fact I had to share the phone line with everyone else in my house. If it weren’t for that, I might never have done my maths homework, no matter how much my mum nagged. Continue reading…
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