is defined as: The voluntary engagement with feline-centric digital artifacts (images, videos, memes, livestreams) for the primary or secondary purpose of mood repair, stress reduction, or social bonding, often accompanied by ritualized commentary (e.g., “good kitty,” “I would die for this cat,” “this healed my soul”).
The internet is not merely a network of computers; it is a vast, sprawling ecosystem of cat content. This paper introduces the concept of — a neologism combining cat , salute (as in recognition or tribute), and salut (French/English for health or wellness). CSO refers to the collective digital rituals in which users create, share, and consume feline media to achieve a measurable, if transient, state of psychological ease. Through a mixed-methods analysis of 5,000 cat tweets, 200 hours of TikTok cat compilations, and a survey of self-identified “chronically online” users, we argue that CSO functions as a low-stakes, asynchronous form of social grooming for the digital age. cat salut online