March 21, 2019
By Sebastian Cabrera
Editor
An Instagram account called “World_Record_Egg” was created by an anonymous person on Jan. 4, with a photo of a brown egg in front of a white background.
The picture was captioned, “Let’s set a world record together and get the most liked post on Instagram. Beating the current world record held by Kylie Jenner (18 million)! We got this.”
In 10 days, the egg received more likes than Kylie Jenner’s photo of her newborn baby and rapper XXXTentacion’s picture that was posted after his death, putting him in third place for the most liked post on Instagram.
By the end of January, the egg was at 30 million likes, and as of right now, the picture has over 53 million likes. The account holder claims to live in London and has named the egg Eugene. Fans of the egg are called the Egg Gang, and the account currently has 10 million followers.
Senior Jillian Tkaczyk said she liked the picture of the egg because she wanted to help the egg reach its goal, and it was very easy because all she had to do was double tap.
“I don’t really care about the egg, but I think it was funny that out of all things to break the record, they chose an egg,” Tkaczyk said.
She said the egg shows how much influence social media has on people. She also said she does not care that Jenner’s post fell into second place.
“The media is very influential, and the egg is proof of that. People liked the picture just because the caption told them to and because their friends were doing it as well,” Tkaczyk said.
She said people liked the image because they wanted to be part of something. She said they enjoyed having the opportunity to contribute to a record, and although a silly one, it was still a big deal. She said peer pressure from everyone posting the egg on their stories played a big role as well.
Senior Matheus Sales said he did not fall for the peer pressure. Although many of his peers liked the picture and posted it on their stories, he decided not to like it.
“I didn’t give the picture a like. It wasn’t that special to me. It was just an egg that got a lot of likes,” Sales said.
He said he does not care about the egg, and he does not understand why others do.
“The egg shows us that the media will turn around and give attention to the smallest things. If somebody wants to be famous, today’s day and age is the perfect time. With more people on the internet for more time each day, there is always something to be created or found,” Sales said.
Unlike Sales, senior Brian Fernandez said he liked the picture of the egg.
“I gave it a like because I was amazed about how many likes it had. To be a part of it was great, and for many people, liking the picture was a world effort,” Fernandez said.
He said the egg reflects how the world can work together to get something done. He also said he does not care that the egg surpassed Kylie Jenner in likes.
“The media is influential because it just works to get things out there right away and always updates every second every day,” said Fernandez.
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