The Couch Surfer: 'A nanostory is a talking point which, online, has become a shouting match'

Click here for a complete Susan Boyle article

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Tim Walker: These stories are disseminated on the web then thrust into the mainstream where they soon die

I find myself thinking about Susan Boyle this week. Remember her? Cat-loving Scottish lady, highly newsworthy for a week or two in May? Sang a song about dreams, came second in a TV talent contest, flirted with Piers Morgan (at which point we should all have guessed that she was under great emotional strain)?

I'm thinking about Susan because her tale is an example of what Bill Wasik – author of a new tome about viral culture, And Then There's This – would call a "nanostory": a talking point in an (inter)national conversation that has, thanks to the internet, become a shouting match. Nanostories like Susan's are disseminated online, then quickly thrust into the harsh mainstream, where they soon wither and die as another takes their place.