A totally crazy week
It all started last Thursday with a letter to the editors in my paper Hallandsposten. An old man, who uses to write a lot, wrote about that he wanted to shut down the internet. No good arguments for why, really, but he has his opinions.
You can read it here, in English.
When I chose to publish it, I knew it would create some reactions. But not at all like this.
The same day it was published, a few people tweeted about it. We unlocked it for everybody to read, and then the tweet-storm started. People all over Sweden hared it on Facebook and Twitter. Many wrote funny things about it, and it continued to spread. Come Friday, 25,000 people had read it on our website.
This was recognized Monday by the web-based paper Dagens Media (Today’s Media) who interviewed me about the craze and that it became so big. After that some other Swedish newspapers called me for an interview. Also the newspaper The Local, who writes about Swedish news in English, called me, and I had an interview in English too.
Dagens media's article, in Swedish.
During the following week it not only spread in Sweden, but across the globe. Newspapers in America, Australia, India, Britain and Canada wrote about the craze, and how an old man in Sweden wants to shut down the Internet. It was also translated into English, so the text itself started to spread.
Here are a few of the articles:
The Independent (Britain, English)
News.com.au (Australia, English)
But the craziest thing is this:
Someone has taken the time to translate it (through Goolge translate, but still) and have it read by the computer-voice, and then created a YouTube video about the letter to the editor.
Friday, the article had been read over 50,000 times, which is a whole lot. Last year we only got that many reads on our live-coverages of the hurricanes in the fall.
Now it’s time to see if there ever will be any letter to the editor in Hallandsposten who will ever reach this much fame. I doubt it.