Jessica Gall Myrick, Indiana University – Cat Videos

Cats are the stars of the internet.

Jessica Gall Myrick, assistant professor of media at Indiana University, explores why cat videos are so popular.

I am an assistant professor at the Indiana University Media School. I received my Ph.D. in Mass Communication and a certificate in Interdisciplinary Health Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2013.

Prior to returning to graduate school, I worked in a variety of communications/journalism positions. I was a multi-platform broadcast journalist, a freelance magazine writer, a newspaper opinion columnist, and was the director of experiential education and recruitment for the IU School of Journalism.

In addition to currently working at IU, I am an alumna of the school. I hold a B.A. (Political Science, 2005) and a M.A. (Journalism, 2007) from Indiana University. While attending IU, I earned a Big Ten championship and three All-American honors as part of the cross country and track teams. Today, though, my running pace is much more leisurely.

When I’m not researching or teaching, I enjoy spending time with my husband, Scott, and pug dog, Biscuit. I’m currently learning to play the ukulele.

Cat Videos

Humans have a long history of domesticating cats. Today, we continue to pay homage to felines. Thanks to developments in communication technology, this work often takes the form of user-generated cat videos and photos posted online.

Given the plethora of online cat videos, I started to wonder why the Internet is seemingly obsessed with cats. There wasn’t any data about what types of people are attracted to online cat-oriented media or how watching it impacts Internet users, so data was needed.

Thanks to the assistance of famous feline Lil’ Bub, whose owner shared the link to my online survey, nearly seven-thousand Internet cat aficionados were asked about their backgrounds and cat-related media habits.

What I my research found was that certain people are, in fact, more attracted to cat videos than others. People who are shy, agreeable, and who already spent a lot of time online were more likely to watch cat videos. Also, most cat video watchers weren’t purposefully seeking out feline media. Instead, three-quarters of the survey respondents reported they just happened upon cat videos while doing other activities online.

My data also suggest a reason why people are drawn to cat videos. They make us feel good. People reported feeling more positive emotions and more energetic after watching cat videos than before. They also felt less anxious and angry after watching cat videos. This all makes sense given that most cat videos are cute or funny, and our brains have learned to associate this genre with good feelings.

 More research is necessary, but it’s possible that in the middle of a hectic workday, watching two cats play paddy-cake for a minute could act as a form of digital pet therapy, giving you that boost you need to soldier on.