April 12, 2026, 3:15 pm | Read time: 4 minutes
On social media, animals find a home. At least in terms of images, social media resembles a large zoo. The absolute favorite among posted animals is the cat. Cat content makes people purr internally when they view it. Why cats, in particular, are so popular online is something an exhibition in Hamburg seeks to explore. TECHBOOK spoke with the creators.
The Museum am Rothenbaum (MARKK) in Hamburg will serve as a hub for all cat fans until the end of November 2026. In the exhibition “Cats!” everything revolves around the absolute favorite animal on the internet.
Every day, countless cat pictures are posted on social media. And not just that. Grumpy Cat, Nala Cat, Lil Bub, and Smoothie the Cat have millions of followers on TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube, even beyond their deaths.
The curator of the exhibition and cultural scientist Lotte Warnsholdt is not surprised: “Cats fit the so-called baby schema. This triggers nurturing instincts in humans when they look at them. Or put differently: They are perceived as particularly cute.”
Cats Have Always Been Popular
The rise of cat content began long before social media and even before the internet. As early as the beginnings of photography in the 19th century, cats were popular subjects. A Brit is even considered a kind of forefather of the meme culture popular on the internet. “The carte-de-visite photos by British photographer Henry Pointer can be seen as an early precursor of this phenomenon. As early as the 1860s, he depicted cats in anthropomorphized poses and added humorous texts to the images,” explains the cultural scientist.
Visitors to the Hamburg exhibition can learn more about the photo series “The Brighton Cats” by Henry Pointer and the first cat videos, “Boxing Cats” by Henry Welton and “Falling Cat” by Étienne-Jules Marey.
With the advent of the internet, it is once again cats that make the web a bit cuter through funny memes.
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Cats as a Reflection of Human Emotions
But people don’t just use cats as cute motifs. Often, the depictions are also about other, less positive things. “In Europe, for example, there is a long tradition of cat abuse, dating back to the medieval witch and cat persecutions,” reports the cultural scientist.
According to Lotte Warnsholdt, this is sometimes reflected in cat videos today. “They sometimes cater to schadenfreude or even slightly sadistic impulses, such as when cats are startled by cucumbers they mistake for dangerous snakes, or when slices of toast are placed around their heads. Thus, a variety of human emotions and affects can be projected onto cats, from tender affection to mean-spirited schadenfreude.”
Love sometimes takes strange paths. But what does the love for cat pictures say about us humans? “I would question whether it is love or rather a fascination with cat pictures,” says Warnsholdt. “There is a discussion about whether the frequently accessed ‘cat content’ is pure escapism, a flight from reality, or even leans toward ‘brainrot,’ making it rather contentless digital material that is consumed so frequently due to certain algorithms.”
Dogs Stand No Chance Against Cats
This topic can be discussed in more depth with the exhibition creators on-site. Because there is still no definitive answer. Nor is there an answer to why it wasn’t dogs that flooded the internet with cute pictures. After all, Germany is considered particularly dog-friendly.
However, cats are far superior in terms of cuteness. “Historically, in the European context, dogs are more often seen as noble animals and were used in hunting. The relationship between humans and dogs is therefore different,” the cultural scientist explains why purring cats are more popular than barking dogs.
Additionally, cats are surrounded by a mysterious aura. “They always remain somewhat unknown to humans and therefore more enigmatic. This enigmatic quality is fascinating to humans and offers much room for projection.” No matter how much the digital world and social media continue to change, there will always be enough space for cat content.