The huge public reaction to a kisscam moment at a Coldplay concert that went viral reveals deeper insights about how we relate to strangers online and the real-world consequences that can follow, according to University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Professor Jingyi Gu.
The moment, captured during the band’s performance and later shared widely on social media, shows a man and woman caught on the jumbotron in what appears to be a romantic interaction. As soon as they noticed they were on screen, they immediately pulled away from each other prompting Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin to say, “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.”
As users speculated about their relationship, identities and intentions, the clip took on a life of its own, leading to both individuals being publicly identified and ultimately losing their jobs.
Getting parasocial on social media
Gu from the School of Communication and Information in UH Mānoa’s College of Social Sciences said that people who saw the video on social media experienced a parasocial relationship with those two people whose personal lives were captured. A parasocial relationship is a one-sided connection in which someone feels a sense of familiarity or emotional attachment to a media figure or stranger, often formed through glimpses into their personal lives shared via media or social platforms.
“Most social media spectators and users don’t know these two people in real life,” Gu said. “Yet, they become personally invested in what they watched and felt ‘familiar’ with those two in the videos because the media feeds them with a glimpse of the very intimate and personal moment of the couple who were captured by the kisscam.”
Gu noted that viral moments like this often trigger viewers to invent backstories. “We create stories or personas around people we don’t know in order to make sense of the world around us, understand others and ourselves, and express our cultural, moral and social values.”
The incident also transformed on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram into a trend, or popular, recurring actions and videos that gain significant attention and influence user activity. Due to the nature of trends, many social media users—including sports teams who would recreate the moment in a comedic fashion on their jumbotrons or kisscams—would create their own version of the incident. In turn, this encouraged other users to do their own takes on the trend, causing the concert moment to go even more viral.
Gu emphasized how social media intensifies these tendencies, saying, “Social media platforms also amplify this type of story- and persona-making by rewarding emotional engagement and attention-grabbing narratives.”
Viral moment can plague those captured
What was once a private exchange became a public spectacle, and, as this case showed, can become destructive for the lives of those involved. “Social media collapses traditional boundaries—what was captured on the Coldplay kisscam was originally a fleeting, personal moment in an anonymous crowd, but can now be recorded, circulated and discussed by many people online.”
“[Viral moments] can be monetized, but can also be destructive—especially when internet narratives assigned to individuals don’t reflect their full reality,” Gu said. “People might face unwanted attention, misidentification, doxxing and even harassment.”
She added, “Some of these narratives also resemble acts of ‘internet vigilantism’—people participate not only in sharing what they consider to be evidence of morally questionable acts (in this case, having an affair), but also in public shaming these targeted individuals.”
While viral clips may be short-lived, the effects are not. “Virality is largely unpredictable and often short-lived. However, this incident shows how an ‘emotional hook’ is critical to something going viral. In this case, feelings of embarrassment, awkwardness and curiosity all drove engagement and contributed to the clip’s spread on social media. But as we consume these viral moments, we also need to remember that the people involved are real individuals (not fictional characters)—and maybe even consider how we might feel if we were in their place.”