C aught in the Study Web
In late 2020, a 10-hour loop of a song from Mario Kart titled “Coconut Mall” started blowing up on Youtube. Initially uploaded as a joke by Gliccit in 2017, the video never saw more than 39 views a day in that calendar year.
But on October 29, 2020, “Coconut Mall” was viewed 39,959 times. As of late April 2021, the video has been played for a collective 478,941 hours. Why did a relatively obscure video featuring a song from 2008 MarioKart Wii get such a significant traffic boost?
Study Web is a vast, interconnected network of study-focused content and gathering spaces for students that spans platforms, disciplines, age groups, and countries. Students seeking motivation, inspiration, focus, and support watch livestreams of a real person at their desk, studying; videos in the Study With Me genre are simultaneously streamed by thousands of students. Or they join Discord communities, where they search for “study buddies,” share studying goals, and compete—by studying—for virtual rewards. On Twitter, they swap study tips and seek out study “moots,” or mutuals, under the hashtag #StudyTwit.
In the case of the “Coconut Mall” video, a TikTok study influencer recommended the video as great focus music, under the hashtag #StudyTok. Tens of thousands flocked to watch, chat, and, of course, study:
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