Architecture student shows how social media virality can be manipulated easily | Inquirer Technology

Architecture student shows how social media virality can be manipulated easily

/ 05:54 PM October 27, 2018

Sarah Abouelkhair

Image: Instagram/@sarahabulkhair

An Instagram user pulled off a daring social experiment and ended up teaching internet users a lesson on social media virality.

Instagram user Sarah Abouelkhair, an architecture student in Egypt, made people believe NASA thought her concept of doing a barbecue under a rocket launch was a great idea. She even threw in big names like SpaceX, Buzzfeed, Gordon Ramsey, Ellen Degeneres, Outback and Netflix to make the claim believable through a series of Instagram direct message screengrabs uploaded on her Instagram Stories.

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Most have already expired as of this writing, but Facebook user Alaa Tarawneh got screengrabs of the initial posts.

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Image: Facebook/Alaa Tarawneh

Abouelkhair revealed in a later post that NASA or SpaceX never actually invited her to have a barbecue with them. Rather, she gave NASA and all the mentioned companies a heads up that she was conducting a social experiment that would entail repeatedly tagging them in social media posts.

Sarah Abouelkhair

Image: Instagram/@sarahabulkhair

She wrote, “Hello! You’ve been getting tags from me on my story as part of a social experiment I’m conducting on the futility of social media and how people with no real content and maybe even a fake content can easily get fame. If you have any questions please tell me and find the full story on my highlights.”

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Abouelkhair also said she also got offers from companies possibly hoping to ride the wave of sudden fame that she created, and get some marketing mileage from it.

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Sarah Abouelkhair

Image: Instagram/@sarahabulkhair

To top it all off, she posted a supposed message from President Donald Trump congratulating her on showing the world how fake news could spread rapidly on social media.

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donald trump

Image: Instagram/@sarahabulkhair

After the big reveal Abouelkhair’s inbox was still getting messages, but this time from people who came to admire what she did. One claimed to be a mass communication student and said Abouelkhair’s little experiment helped understand the effects of social media.  /ra

Image: Instagram/@sarahabulkhair

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TOPICS: NASA, SpaceX
TAGS: NASA, SpaceX

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