The first viral video on the internet certainly was a bit wacky for a couple of reasons. One is that there was no such thing as ‘going viral’ when this video was made. It was created back late 90’s with outdated equipment that didn’t work and in fact wasn’t even plugged in. Yeah, that’s the second thing, it was a big hoax. The company this ‘angry man’ worked at was called Loronix and it was apparently a very fun place to work. The employees enjoyed it and spent a lot of their free time playing Quake on the T1 line. Yes, that’s really how old it is.
Anyway, Vinny Licciardi, the angry man slamming his fists into the keyboard and then using it to home run the monitor, was not a disgruntled employee and was in fact testing out DVR technology for security cameras. The whole angry at work thing was a bit overblown but it was a hit with anyone and everyone who saw it. Apparently as it was passed around via email it did a little damage since the file was so easy to corrupt and wasn’t fully compatible with the systems of the time, or something along those lines. But the word of mouth about the clip got around faster than anything as one couldn’t go hardly anywhere without hearing about it once or twice.
It’s amazing how things change so quickly over the years. What would have taken at least a few days to a week to get around now takes seconds to minutes at most. With the speed of social media and the desire of so many to see the ups and downs of everyone’s life the internet has become a way to laugh at those that suffer misfortune and cheer on those that are doing well, or vice versa. The kind of speeds that exist now hadn’t even been close to being possible back then, or at least those in charge of pushing the envelope hadn’t thought about them as of yet. Remember when everything was still dialup? You had to be off the phone and wait so long for the internet to boot up and then hope and pray that someone didn’t need to make a call right in the middle of what you were doing?
That’s a thing of the past now, as viral videos like this can be shared in an instant no matter if someone’s on a phone sitting right next to you. Almost everything that’s recorded or caught on camera is put on the internet anymore, so viral videos are still kind of important and interesting but they’re no longer a phenomenon that people talk about unless they’re about something incredibly impressive or important, or both.
This video is little more than a meme at this point and one that generally gets ignored most likely. Granted it was kind of funny and still is but the moment he guy looks at the camera and smiles you know for certain that it’s a fake. Plus the dark screen kind of tips you off too.
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