This is a social media age. Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc. are the new
water-coolers, public spheres, salons, and forums. Social Media sites
function by a series of rules called algorithms, that allow for
different types of discussion. Unfortunately, it is not well understood
how social media shapes social communication. Different social media
sites have completely different algorithms that likely have very
different effects. Thus, the study of how social media shapes social
communication must look at each site individually and the algorithms
that drive it. If you know these rules, and their effects, you are
granted tremendous power.
In 2014, when fighting the Ukranians, the Russian government was able to
use an army of automated Twitter users to shape foreign public opinion
and hobble support for their enemy (Solddatov and Borogan 2015). In
Argentina, politicians hire professional “trolls” to attack each other
on twitter (Crettaz 2016). Food Babe, an activist, dedicated to fighting
chemicals in food, has amassed her own “Food Babe Army”, which
pressures food companies to stop serving up “toxins” (Calahan 2015,
d’Entremont 2015, Rubin 2015). Anyone who understands social media well
can harness it, for better or for worse.
While Twitter has been taken up by nation states and professionals, I
found little information on the algorithms behind Reddit. Reddit is the
eighth most popular website in the world (Alexa 2017), with over 1.2
billion visits in May 2017 alone. The average user spends 16:38 minutes
daily on the site and views 10.75 pages a day on the site (Statista
2017). Reddit was founded in 2005, by two graduates of the University of
Virginia, Stephen Huffman and Alexis Ohanian (Macale 2011). The site is
71% male, and very young and educated (see figure) (Barthell, Stocking,
Holcolmb, and Mitchell 2016). It is an intellectually aggressive forum-
like an online old-school stock trading floor, drenched in testosterone.
On the site, users will post questions links or pictures, and the others
will discuss them. This discussion serves as a forge where opinions and
interpretations are created.
How Reddit Works