How Would The Internet React To A Zombie Apocalypse?
We’ve all thought about it, wondered about it and played it through in our heads – at least, anyone who has ever watched a zombie movie has done: what would you do in the event of a real zombie apocalypse?
Baton down the hatches, stock pile supplies or grab the nearest shotgun? If the last decade has taught us anything it is that the internet, and particularly social media, would play a major part in the public’s reaction to such an event, so find a weapon, sit back and (try) to relax as we take you on a journey of hysterical hash tags, Instagram gore and frantic Google searches…
#ZombiesInMyKitchen
Figure 1: Despite our impending doom, some things never change – Bieber’s still trending.
As far as major World events go, nowadays if it’s not trending on Twitter then it isn’t that big a deal, and there is no doubt that if a horde of zombies attempted to take over the world people would be talking about it on social media.
In fact it is likely that social media sites such as Twitter would leave mainstream news outlets in their wake as the zombie apocalypse broke out. As TV news stations scrambled to confirm reports of scores of the undead roaming the streets Twitter and Facebook would already be awash with citizen journalists reporting their stories to the world.
Figure 2: Twitter would be overwhelmed by tweets from terrified – as well as mildly inconvenienced – people.
Uploading of Photos to Social Media
You’d like to think that your friends and family wouldn’t stop to take pictures of you being eaten by a gang of blood-thirsty zombies, but it seems as though there is literally nothing we won’t capture and upload to social media.
This was demonstrated last year when police in the UK were forced to send warnings to motorists who had slowed down to snap images of a major road traffic accident on the other side of the motorway, and it is incredibly unlikely that the internet would not be engulfed by macabre images should the zombies come to town.
The fact is that as a race we are fascinated by the gruesome and the gory – just look at the success of the Saw and Final Destination movie franchises – and you only have to glance down your newsfeed to see just how keen some people are to share every aspect of their lives – maybe even their grizzly deaths.
SEO Still Pays!
You didn’t think that the almighty Google wouldn’t be getting involved in the end of the world did you?
Approximately 4.7 billion Google searches are carried out every single day and, although the searches may be a little different, in the event of a zombie invasion millions of people would take to their favourite search engine to try to find a way to survive. SEO would probably even play a part, with all of those web-savvy axe and firearms dealers who invested in SEO finally reaping those rewards, proving the old adage true that says there is always someone who benefits from a disaster.
Figure 3: The ‘Axe Superstores’ optimisation for the keyphrase “Axe sellers in Rugby” finally paid off.
It may seem bizarre to think that people would react in this way to something as apocalyptic as a zombie invasion, however time and time again it has been shown that nothing is too inappropriate for the internet, so start thinking up some hilarious walking dead memes ahead of time.
This guest blog was written by John Rooney on behalf of Creare Communications, an SEO and web design company based in Rugby, UK.
Featured images:
- License: Images author owned
This guest blog was written by John Rooney on behalf of Creare Communications, an SEO and web design company based in Rugby, UK.
I think using Facebook or Twitter during an takeover by the living dead would be a little hard, as you scramble under the bed to hide mobile in hand….