TOP ONLINE MOMENTS
In addition to celeb scandals and all kinds of drama, we present 2015’s most memorable internet moments, in chronological order.
In March, one-of-a-kind fashionista Apichet “Madaew” Atirattana began receiving recognition for his unique take on fashion. The 16-year-old student fashioned attire from ordinary things he found around his house in Khon Kaen, ranging from banana leaves, to chicken cages, to durian husks. Videos and photographs of him posing and strutting quickly went viral, earning him followers in and out of Thailand.
May saw the peak of popularity of How-Old.net in Thailand. The website can guess your age and gender from a picture. Your photos may end up in Microsoft’s ads later, though.
Near the end of June, a Facebook page called Job Khao (fb.com/CheckBait) received approximately 100,000 likes within the first day of its existence. It’s an answer to a problem many Thai users have. Sometimes, you click on a news story with a very long and sensational headline only to find a mundane story that isn’t worth your 3G usage and time. The page summarises news stories into a few sentences. Very convenient when you want to keep yourself updated while commuting. The page currently has over 420,000 likes.
In late of June, Thai Facebookers applied rainbow filters to their profile pictures in celebration of the US Supreme Court’s legalisation of gay marriage.
In the wake of the Bangkok bombing on August 17, Facebookers showed solidarity by changing their profile pictures into one of many versions of “Pray for Bangkok” or “Pray for Thailand”.
In October, Thai celebs were in hot water for posting pictures of themselves with beer on their IG accounts. The police warned civilians that they may also be found guilty for promoting alcohol, if their photographs showed visible beer labels. Do we need to carry a koozie in our bag from now on? If the authorities want to discourage people from drinking this much, why don’t they simply ban alcohol altogether? Following the Paris attack on November 13, many Facebook users put a filter of the French national flag over their profile pictures to show their support for the country. Why wasn’t there Thai flag filter after the Bangkok bombing? According to the director of the Thai National Flag Museum, Thai law forbids adding letters, numbers or signs to the flag.