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Ask HN: What makes things/memes "trend" on twitter?

I'm pretty fascinated by something that's been happening on Twitter for a while. If you look at the top trends on search.twitter.com there's always something like: #tacky #youwerecooluntil #songofthedecade etc. Facebook also had the bra color meme going on/still going on: http://mashable.com/2010/01/07/bra-color-facebook-status/ From a scientific and almost investigative aspect, what makes things like this trend? This is different than things like earthquake or certain news events that trend due to their nature ie- they happen at a certain time and impact a lot of people who talk about it.

kyro 17y ago
For the Facebook bra color meme, I think the mysterious nature of it all helped give it momentum as many people didn't quite understand what was going, leading people to either post a color to mock the situation or ask around to find out what exactly was going on, and then posting a color to taunt others who weren't part of the in-crowd. Mauve, by the way. If there's any way to engage Facebook users, it's to give them a feeling of unique purpose that can be broadcast to others in a subtle and unintentional manner.