Chennai: In the era of digitalisation where the neighbours go unrecognisable, social media is all set to give away an unconventional fame to its disciples. Such unprepared user of social media who woke up to an unprecedented fame was Vignesh Prabakar, a Dubai-based civil engineer who accidentally trended the #PrayForNesamani.
In an interview to News Today, the Thoothukudi native said two days before the actual viral hash tag he had commented the same content in Tamil to a similar post to which one of his Facebook friends replied with a GIF where a hammer is dropped on Vadivelu’s head.
“Later a friend tagged me in a post made by the Facebook page Civil Engineering Learners in which they posted the picture of a hammer and asked what was the name of the tool in your country. I felt my friend was expecting more from me and this time I made the same comment in English. Later my friend commented back asking if he (Nesamani) is okay now sarcastically, to which I replied him with #PrayForNesamani tag.”
He further revealed that he was totally unaware of the accidental fame, his school friend created a meme based on his comment and shared it on social media platforms.
“He was expecting a number of shares and likes but not a trending hit. He was taken by surprise with the response as well,” Vignesh said.
When questioned on how he was made aware of the trending, he replied, “I was actually at work when I made the comment. After getting back home my uncle called to inform about the post, on turning on the internet I was stunned to receive a huge number of tags and message from all social media platforms.”
Vignesh further said that he joined Twitter just to get update of Ajith movies. “I am a die hard Ajith fan and joined Twitter just to get update about his movies. I did not take it seriously when my friend said that the hashtag went viral. But when I learnt it was trending nation wide it was a bit shocked and scared,” he added.
When asked about the key behind the fame, he vows it to the popularity of the movie and the rigid association and recognition of the comical scene and the actor. “Though there are several purposeful hash tags comes in and out everyday, not every purpose behind the hash tags or the message they bare is reached to the people,” said Vignesh.
He added that recognition plays a vital role for creating a viral trend, “Hash tags played vital roles in questioning the authorities and it also became a trump card for the political parties to campaign for votes.”
Article by Hema Nivetha