For my anthropological analysis, I chose the internet subculture of Redditors, the users of the website Reddit . The basis of Reddit lies in the post, which can either be plain text or a link from an outside source, oftentimes from image hosting site Imgur. Once a post has been made, users can choose to “upvote” or “downvote” posts, which in turn sends popular posts to the Front Page, an agglomeration of posts from various communities, or “subreddits”. These subreddits cover a variety of topics, ranging from Funny to Ladyboners, a collection of people users think are attractive.
What really makes each of these subreddits unique is how the users decide how to post. While there is original content, or OC, oftentimes posts are influenced by a herd mentality. For example, recently Reddit has been abuzz with the meme False Fact Nancy Grace, started by /u/muff_daddy. Since it was posted on March 26, “nearly 80 instances have were submitted to /r/AdviceAnimals, with at least six posts garnering more than 1,500 upvotes” (knowyourmeme.com). Other examples of this include a week without opinion-based memes, and Weird Stuff I Do Potoo. However, many memes, such as Success Kid, first posted in 2007, are considered a staple of Reddit and tend to last longer than more transient memes.
Another interesting aspect of Reddit is the concept of Karma. As previously mentioned, users can upvote or downvote the posts of other users. The total rating of a post is based on the number of upvotes minus the number of downvotes. This total is then added up with the score of other posts by the user, and shows their total karma. There are two types of karma: link karma and comment karma. Link karma, as the name implies, is karma gained from posts, whereas comment karma is based off of the number of upvotes and downvotes a comment has received. However, the desire for karma has led many users to submit posts with the sole intent of gaining upvotes.
Reddit has become a dynamic source for entertainment, news, and self-expression. What really fascinates me about it, however, is how the goal of accumulating karma has led to a kind of herd mentality, where posting habits are subject to the rise and fall of popularity, and how other posting trends seem to stay around for years.