Best point guard in the NBA

The term "viral" has often been used to describe distinct practices and trends, ranging from spread through word-of-mouth to video remixes on YouTube. Viral media has had a profound effect on contemporary culture with trends and opinions being formed and spread like viruses, creating buzz via social networks and mobilising consumers and distributors, audiences and producers, friends and family to participate and discuss.

"Media viruses" spread through digital networks the same way biological viruses spread through the body or a community. Instead of travelling along a biological circulatory system, a media virus travels and spreads through networks within contemporary media. The core of the virus may be an event, invention, technology, opinion, scandal, rumour, image, a song or particular cultural figures. Any type of media virus will capture audience attention, resulting in the longevity of the virus through its replication, reproduction and spreadability. Once media viruses have been firmly attached within digital communities, its hidden agendas begins to spread within datastreams in the form of "ideological code, not genes, but a conceptual equivalent we now call "memes' (Rushkoff 1995, 9 - 10).

This week, the trending topic among NBA meme communities has been the "best point guard in the league". This meme originated from New York Knicks point guard Raymond Felton's comments claiming to be a more skilful player than his predecessor Jeremy Lin. Fans debated as to who really is currently the best point guard in the NBA by comparing player statistics and achievements through memes. Whether or not this particular theme will achieve the longevity associated with more successful memes remains to be seen, but, what is evident is that just about any notion within contemporary culture can capture the attention and generavitity of people. Felton by no means is a "poor" player but he certainly is not considered as one of the game’s elites, and at best, has never been more of a role player, and yet, a seemingly harmless comment can spark the attention of an entire online fan base. What will be interesting in the coming days (or weeks) is if this theme will continue to mutate or will it slowly fade away into obscurity like many already have.