Man predicts Kobe Bryant’s death one of many overnight social media sensations

Amid the grief following basketball player Kobe Bryant’s death, one twitter user was catapulted to fame overnight for his eight-year-old prediction of Kobe’s death, the latest case of social media transforming an ordinary person’s life.

With the ability to either destroy a person’s life or catapult them to fame and fortune with a single post, social media can gain people millions of followers and a life of fame overnight – or make them a public enemy subject to viscous storms of attacks.
Here are some examples of ordinary people whose lives have been changed forever by one post.

dotNoso

NBA all-star basketball player Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash on Monday, breaking the hearts of millions of his fans and leading to an outpour of tributes from players, politicians, and entertainers alike.

The tragedy, however, ended up shedding the spotlight on an otherwise obscure individual, known only as “dotNoso” on Twitter, who ended up at the center of a social media storm for a chilling and hair-raising tweet.

Eight years ago, he wrote: “Kobe is going to end up dying in a helicopter crash.”

The tweet gained a huge amount of interaction, garnering more than 160,000 retweets and 300,000 likes. People flooded his timeline with responses ranging from skeptics accusing him of manipulating the date of his tweet to others asking him to make other statements so that they could come true too – such as US President Donald Trump winning the 2020 elections.

Dr. Mike

Dr. Mike Varshavski is not a TV drama personality. He is actually a board-certified primary care physician - but more commonly known as “the sexiest doctor alive.” An Instagram picture of him went viral in 2015 as the internet went wild at his luscious looks. BuzzFeed wrote an article about how attractive he was, and he then featured again in People magazine's 2015 Sexiest Man Alive issue.

He now has almost five million subscribers to his YouTube channel and 3.4 million followers on Instagram.

Since his rise to fame, Dr. Mike splits his time between filming YouTube videos and practicing medicine, according to Business Insider.

Chaiwala

Another similar case is that of a Pakistani tea-seller or “chaiwala” in a bazaar in Islamabad, Pakistan. Arshad Khan, a 17-year-old chaiwala, was going about his day normally when a photographer was struck by his “good looks” and blue eyes and posted a picture of him on Instagram with the caption “hot tea.”

It went viral – creating a whole internet sensation known as “chaiwala. ” A modeling job quickly followed when Pakistani retailer Fitin.pk wanted to capitalize on the buzz. Then came more modeling gigs, and he even featured in singer Muskan Jay’s music video for her song Beparwai, according to Pakistani media outlet ProPakistani. He is expected to feature in a television show next, but plans are still tentative.

“Who is she?”

In December 2016, Canadian singer-songwriter Justin Beiber posted a photo of a girl on his Instagram page with the caption “OMG who is this!!” His fans launched an online hunting spree to find out who the mystery girl is.

Cindy Kimberly, a Spanish 17-year old babysitter at the time. That was then. A month later, she was scooped up by a modeling agency and off she went to the catwalk. Her Instagram account has six million followers.

No human monopoly

Who says homo sapiens are the only ones posting their selfies and pictures of their meals on social media? Furry creatures need an outlet to express themselves too!

Grumpy Cat, also known as Tardar Sauce, had her own dedicated account on Twitter with 1.6 million followers.

She rose to fame in 2012 after photographs of her scowl emerged online and her everlasting frown became iconic. Her face has since been used by many to express their anger and discontent with situations without resorting to words.

According to her owner Tabitha Bundesen, her facial expression was caused by feline dwarfism and an underbite, the BBC reports.

Grumpy Cat travelled the world making television appearances and in 2014 even starred in her own Christmas film, and Madame Tussauds in San Francisco unveiled a waxwork of her in 2015.

Sadly, she died in May 2019, and millions of people took to social media to offer tributes.