How many videos have you seen of cats outside the home on a cold day looking through the kitchen door meowing and/or pawing at the door begging to be let inside when the response from the cat’s owner (who loves her cat desperately) is to prefer to grab the cell phone and video her cat rather than respond and let him in?! I have seen countless videos like this and the one below is a single example. It is called ‘Clancy asks to be let in’. So why not bloody well let him in rather than video him asking to be let in? It is mildly abusive. It is not good cat caregiving and the reason for this lowering of cat caretaking standards is the desire to make a social media video that gets some viewings. The Holy Grail of social media endeavours.
Studies indicate that 30% of cats featured in these kinds of ‘funny cat videos’ of which there are many types and examples are stressed. People are making ‘funny cat videos’ on the back of distressed cats. Not a good idea.
Note: This is an embedded video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source or the video is turned into a link which would stop it working here. I have no control over this.
Social media is a two-edged sword. It is good and bad. But it is also addictive to some people. And there is great competition to get people to see their videos. I am sure that 99% of videos drown in an endless sea and are hardly ever seen. Perhaps some loyal followers see them – ‘friends’ of the video maker seeking friendship themselves – and perhaps they make the usual sycophantic comments praising the video so they can receive praise for their video but by and large these videos are a waste of time. They just clog up the internet.
The businesses which are based on publishing videos such as Viral Hog and Buzz Videos, climb over each other to obtain rights to these ‘vids’ but they are high hanging fruit. All the good stuff was made ages ago. Genuinely interesting, entertaining and informative videos are exceeding rare.
These mildly abusive funny cat videos get hundreds of hits, but the maker wants millions. They want viral but that is very hard to achieve. What we see in these videos is ordinary lives. And ordinary lives do not cut it on social media. But it all they’ve got to show the public. It is sad.
Funny cat videos shine a light on the ordinariness of everyday life. An ordinary life is fine. It’s what happens to 99.9% of people 99.9% of the time and it is not worth videoing. And it is certainly not a good idea to video your cat begging to be let inside the home. Just let him in and forget about the smartphone.
P.S. The video on this page has one other aspect which is perhaps worth mentioning. The video maker noticed how the condensation on the glass panel made things more interesting. You know ‘Mysterious cat tries to get in’. But the condensation indicates a problem in their home. Condensation damages homes and causes mould to form in the corners of rooms. This kitchen needs to be ventilated. Another sign of a careless approach to life.
Below are some more articles on funny cat videos which I rarely find funny. Yeh, I know I am grumpy, but I am thinking of cat welfare and challenging the obsession with making boring and abusive videos of cats.