Bored Panda reached out to the author of the Cat_virus.exe Instagram page, who preferred to stay anonymous. “My idea for the cat_virus page is to keep an archive of all the most popular cat pics on the internet, and nothing else,” they told us.
“Before I had this page, for over 2 years I posted cat pics on the stories of my personal account, so one day I decided to create a page to save all the hundreds of pics I had, and it went viral due to its name because no other page had a name like this at the time.”
And when it comes to the page’s name, the author said it was just a test to see if Instagram would allow it.
“Sometimes I get some submissions, but most of the time I just steal from other Instagram and Facebook pages, I have to assume,” they said. But taking pics from others out of the context can surely get you into trouble. Turns out, that’s what happened to the author of Cat_virus.exe.
“And the fact that I just get the image for its value and don't pay attention to its context got me in trouble a few times, because I rarely know the source. But my followers always help me by commenting who I should credit,” they added, thanking their Instagram audience of 290k followers.
When asked why internet is crazy about cats, the creator of Cat_virus.exe said that “their naturality makes them so special, how they don't care about a thing and just try to do things in their own manner. For me that's what makes them so cute and funny.”
Bored Panda reached out to Molly DeVoss, a certified feline training and behavior specialist who runs Cat Behavior Solutions agency to find out what she thinks about cats taking the internet by storm. “Most studies find in many parts of the world dogs are more popular than cats—but it’s no mystery that a good cat photo can take the internet by storm,” said Molly when asked what is it that makes cats such popular content on the internet.
She continued: “I think people are obsessed with cat pictures and videos on the internet because cats are typically “poker faced”—meaning they don’t visually express emotions like their canine counterparts do. Cats instinctively don’t show vulnerability because they are both predator and prey; to appear readable could be life-threatening for them.”
Moreover, “When a cat makes a human-like facial expression or inadvertently mimics a human gesture, we think it’s 'cute'; mostly because it is atypical of the species,” Molly added. “Also, anyone who has lived with a cat knows how incredibly majestic and beautiful they are; it’s a lot like living with a tiny wild animal. Their grace, nimbleness, and climbing ability are captivating to watch,” the cat behavior expert concluded.
