Viral fever

Mona

Social media is the new meeting point — where challenges are given and accepted; records made, opinions expressed and trends set. There were some major happenings through the year — whether it was an unassuming egg or a Starbucks cup, testing gender stereotypes or making an Instagram debut. Here’s a look at some.

#The humble egg

The year began on an ‘eggey’ note, as Instagram account @world_record_egg challenged everyone to beat the world record set by Kylie Jenner! The brown egg was able to dethrone the TV star and world’s youngest self-made billionaire’s baby announcement picture. It took the humble egg just 10 days to garner 53 million likes as opposed to Kylie’s 18 million. However, Kylie got it back by breaking an egg on a hot road!

#Latte or herbal tea?

An embarrassing oversight worked pretty well for a coffee chain as a Games of Thrones fan spotted a Starbucks cup in a post-battle feast scene in Winterfell! Much to fans’ outrage at the major slip, the internet was abuzz with theories. HBO joined the party with the statement: “The latte that appeared in the episode was a mistake, Daenerys had ordered herbal tea.”

#Awesome Aniston

When Jennifer Aniston officially opened her Instagram handle on October 19, she set a Guinness World Record of ‘the fastest Instagram account to gain one million followers in merely five hours and 16 minutes’. While her first picture was a selfie with iconic show’s co-stars, Aniston posted at the social media frenzy, “I swear I didn’t mean to break it... Thank you guys for the kind welcome.”

#Bottle, cap & a kick

If #KikiChallenge was a hit last year, it was #BottleCapChallenge in 2019. Opening a bottle cap with a roundhouse kick... many celebs from Justin Bieber to Jason Statham, Tiger Shroff to Sushmita Sen, showed their skills with this one hashtag.

#10 years apart

Narcissism reached its peak with the 10-year challenge! Suddenly social media was flooded with people posting their pictures from 2009 and then from 10 years later — 2019. The who’s who of Bollywood, including Bipasha Basu, Dia Mirza, Sonam Kapoor, to Hollywood stars, like Anne Hathaway, Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Lopez, took up the challenge.

#Quite a storm

An event created for fun, #StormArea51, got so much attention that 1.5 million tapped ‘interested’. And, boy the memes that it led to! Nevada law enforcement agencies issued warnings against anyone trying to trespass the military area. ‘They Can’t Stop All of Us’ was the tagline for the event aimed to raid Area 51, which is infamous for housing UFOs. However, only 150 actually showed up.

#Cricket is religion

Cricket remains a religion in India. Pakistan skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed’s infamous yawn and a fan’s very public meltdown only reaffirmed the same. #PAKvsIND was trending as much in India as Pakistan and England, where the match was scheduled at Old Trafford. “Kal raat yeh log burger khate rahen hain, kal raat ye pizze khate rahen hain, inko cricket chudayo aur dangal ladao,” a fan vented his ire.

#Cat among the pigeons

This cat had many; including Spiderman, go for a reality (follower) check. The crying woman yelling at the cat, who gets her own seat at the table, led to memes aplenty. Distaste for salad had the cat, named Smudge, win her share of admirers. Smudge’s disgruntled expression posted next to Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Taylor Armstrong’s yelling face has been trending ever since May.

#The name game

Royalty retains its loyal fan base; detractors stalk the British monarchy with equal zeal. If last year Meghan Markle’s fairytale moment of becoming the Duchess of Sussex was the high of 2018, it was her son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, who won 2019. The name Archie took the world by surprise as royal bookmakers had hopes high on an Alexander, James, Arthur, Albert or Spencer!

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