Cats and the Internet

Images and videos of domestic cats make up some of the most viewed content on the web, particularly image macros in the form of lolcats. ThoughtCatalog has described cats as the "unofficial mascot of the Internet." Cats as human companions "are now sharing not only people's real life but also their virtual world." as a scientific study points out.

The subject has attracted the attention of various scholars and critics, who have analysed why this form of low art has reached iconic status. Though it may be considered frivolous, cat-related internet content contributes to how people interact with media and culture. Some argue that there is a depth and complexity to this seemingly simple content, with a suggestion that the positive psychological effects that pet animals have on their owners also holds true for cat images viewed online.

Some individual cats, such as Grumpy Cat and Lil Bub, have achieved popularity online because of their unusual appearances.

Humans have always had a close relationship with cats, and the animals have long been a subject of short films, including the early silent movies Boxing Cats (1894) and The Sick Kitten (1903).Harry Pointer (1822–1889) has been cited as the "progenitor of the shameless cat picture". Cats have been shared via email since the internet's inception in the 1990s. The first cat video on YouTube was uploaded in 2005 by YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, who posted a video of his cat called Pyjamas playing with a rope". The following year, "Puppy vs Cat" became the first viral cat video; uploaded by a user called Sanchey; as of 2015 it had over 16 million views on YouTube. In a Mashable article that explored the history of cat media on the Internet, the oldest entry was an ASCII art cat that originated on 2channel, and was a pictorial representation of the phrase "Please go away."

...
Wikipedia