How TikTok's 'couch guy' video spiraled out of control and became the subject of viral cheating speculation
- A video of a woman surprising her boyfriend went viral, sparking theories about "couch guy" online.
- Experts said that the video tugged at users' impulse to theorize, similar to true crime or TV fans.
Over the past week, discussions about "couch guy" have been all over social media in the wake of a viral video that showed a woman surprising her boyfriend at college. What started as a relatively innocuous clip, exploded into a full-blown internet-sleuthing and meme-generating operation on TikTok that's left the parties involved dealing with the remnants of unintended viral notoriety.
"Surprising my boyfriend at college," the on-screen caption on the original video, uploaded on September 21 by Lauren Zarras (@laurenzarras), reads.
It shows Zarras walking into an apartment with a suitcase before setting down her bags and going to hug a man sitting on a couch - her boyfriend Robbie - while Ellie Goulding's "Still Falling For You" plays in the background.
The video eventually went mega-viral, amassing 5 million likes and over 60 million views to date. In the process, it also sparked a wave of speculation about the couple - most notably, that Robbie was cheating on Zarras, based on supposed clues in the video.
The narrative went so viral, that it was discussed on "The View" and Barbara Corcoran of "Shark Tank" told Zarras to leave Robbie in a comment.
So how exactly does innocuous content spiral into a full-blown conspiracy-minded cultural moment? Experts told Insider it's a mix of a platform's algorithm and human psychology.
'Couch Guy' pulled at internet users' impulse to theorize, which may explain its massive virality
Casey Fiesler, an assistant professor of information science at the University of Colorado, Boulder and a TikToker herself, compared some of the theorizing around the "couch guy" video to discussions that happened on the "Serial" true-crime podcast subreddit and around major shows like "Game of Thrones," illustrating a similar instinct among audiences to run away with a storyline regardless of what media they're consuming.
Much of the discussion around "couch guy" has featured theorizing about how various aspects of the video, from a bracelet on Robbie's wrist to the way he grabs his phone, could indicate trouble in the couple's relationship. Zarras addressed a number of these theories in an appearance on Alyssa Amoroso's podcast "Tea with Publyssity," saying that an alleged hair tie on her boyfriend's wrist was, in fact, a matching couple's bracelet, that his phone was on the couch (not handed to him as some suggested), and that the woman to the right of him in the video had a boyfriend.
"I think it's a similar kind of thing," Fiesler told Insider. "If this TikTok had been a scene in a TV show, then all of this would be completely appropriate. And sometimes, I think it can be hard for people to make that distinction."
TikTok's algorithm can lead to videos exploding past their intended scope with potentially negative consequences
Discourse in the comments of Zarras' video could have also served to boost its engagement, Don Heider, the chief executive of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, told Insider. Fiesler said that while the particulars of TikTok's algorithm aren't publicly known, "conventional wisdom suggests that certain types of engagement metrics" including comments would factor into which videos get pushed out.
TikTok has published some information about how its recommendation algorithm serves videos to users. According to TikTok, the algorithm takes factors like how long users watch videos, the kinds of content that they like and comment on, and hashtags into account when determining which videos to serve to a user.
"The more people comment, and the more they like or dislike, the farther it's going to spread, and the more chance it has to go viral," Heider told Insider.
When it comes to the platform itself, Heider said it's important to ask TikTok what its role is when this kind of content goes viral and leads to negative attention on a subject, and that the platform could consider further raising the hood on its algorithm or limiting the spread of viral content. The platform's community guidelines prohibit harassment and bullying.
'Humanity' gets lost in viral videos
Ultimately, the pull of Zarras' video was the promise of a mystery for internet sleuths to unravel - even if, as the couple said, there wasn't any mystery in the first place. The video's massive virality, further expounded by parodies that turned a recorded moment between a couple into a meme format, leads to users treating it like "popular culture" and erases the "humanity" of its subjects, Heider told Insider.
"The internet creates a certain amount of distance that can make people interact with strangers that they see online in a way that they would not with people," Fiesler said.
TikTok did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.