A few months ago, Mason Ramsey, best known as the "Walmart Yodeling Kid", would have never thought how his life would change thanks to a video of him yodeling Hank Williams Sr.’s “Lovesick Blues” in a Walmart going viral online. The original YouTube video has upwards of 2 million views and went viral on Twitter as well. Due to his subsequent fame, the 11-year-old from Illinois went on to perform on Ellen, the Grand Ole Opry and even Coachella where he hung out with Justin Bieber. While on the surface this may seem like a positive story of a talented kid getting to achieve his dreams, Ramsey is also exposed to a lot of negativity in the form of hate comments and dislikes. Moreover, there lies a huge task ahead of him and his guardians to handle this sudden fame.

With the rise of use in social media, it has become extremely straightforward to post images and videos and share them on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. This has led to a strange trend of people accidentally becoming internet famous. Accidental fame can happen to anyone, it just takes one tweet. While it can lead to opportunities and exciting experiences, it can also have life-changing repercussions.

Back in 2010, when Kanye West first joined Twitter, he chose to only follow Steve Holmes, a University of Nottingham student from Coventry, England. Being the only person Kanye West follows came with sudden fame and shot Holmes's Twitter followers to a thousand in just an hour. Kanye West even tweeted at him, "You are the chosen one dun dun dun dun". This random act led to Holmes receiving a lot of hate on social media. He even had journalists surround his house and received interview requests from leading media outlets like CNN and the BBC. This shows that internet fame doesn't just remain in the virtual world but has a significant impact on your real life and may also disrupt your privacy. "Alex from Target" is another example of just one tweet leading to sudden fame. Alex, an employee of Target, became famous when a customer took his picture and posted it on Twitter. He even became a trending topic on Twitter. Both Holmes and Alex did nothing to achieve this fame. In fact, other people were responsible for it. It is hard to tell what goes behind becoming internet famous - a variety of factors including luck are involved.

While this accidental fame is more likely to happen to those who are active on social media and who put themselves out there, it could happen to anyone at any time and often comes when it is least expected. Because of this unpredictability, those who do become accidentally famous are not equipped to deal with this sudden fame and while some of them embrace and flourish in their newfound fame, there are those who wouldn't want fame and would prefer a private life. Even those who have the highest privacy settings on their social media accounts may find that their photos or videos have gone viral if a friend or family member shares it. As a society, we should learn to create a more positive atmosphere on social media and refrain from posting hate comments. It is easy to hide behind anonymity but we should keep in mind that our actions can affect lives. We should also think twice before uploading photos and videos of strangers on social media as those could go viral and have a life-changing impact on someone else's life.