#Riccing on Twitter

When analyzing Christina Ricci's twitter trend, many thoughts and questions were brought up. What was the purpose of her post? It seems that she is trying to get the attention of others.Some of her followers retweeted her post, and others saw it. Eventually other tweeters took photos of themselves in strange places and hashtagged it as "Riccing". The term seems to relate to other terms, such as tebowing, planking, milking, etc. The word is derived from her name because of something she had started. Ricci says in her tweet with the photo attached, "Yes, pants would have been more appropriate fitting-into-the fridge attire. But, hey, I saw my opportunity and took it." What is so opportunistic about being able to take a "selfie" in the fridge? People as small as her could do that all the time because it is not like it is an "opportunity" to take a photo of oneself in a fridge. Photos like these intrigue many people probably because of the strangeness of it makes it fun for other people to try and fit themselves in small, awkward places. The image seemed to inspire others to pose like she did in her's, just as people do with "planking"or "tebowing". Why doesn't everyone photographing themselves doing something out of the ordinary and name it after themselves if they want publicity so much? Riccing is a trend that has spread on Twitter through her followers whom re-tweeted her tweet, the followers of her followers re-tweet those tweets, etc. This is how strange photos or statuses become so popular in society; it is because the use of technology with social networks makes trends spread so much faster than it would without technology. Social networking has a huge effect on how people view the world. Many things about a person can be hidden behind the computer, phone, iPad, etc. but they still become popular because of something so bazaar that they posted for the public to see.  Viewers are interested in media that is unexpected, different, or strange. This is a rhetoric device that is being used in order to persuade people to mimic strange actions. Maybe it is not very complex and that she was just trying to have fun and get people to join. She seems to be trying to evoke emotion from other people.