DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

I spent a lot of time trying to decide what platform I would use. I initially thought Twitter but I rarely find discussions happening in Twitter. It seems to be more of people patting one another on the back and I’m not interested in that– it’s not sincere. I was hesitant but I chose Reddit even though I never used the site and I didn’t enjoy the cluttered interface and the immature alien logo that is synonymous with the site. But looking around Reddit a bit, I was interested in the fact that it is largely a discussion focused site. The advantages of social media really come through when sharing ideas with people. And I wanted to explore that theory of mine within Reddit itself.


I ended up liking Reddit a lot more than I thought I would. I still think it’s a bit of an ugly and cluttered site but I find that there is something comforting about the amount of data that is shown on screen when browsing the site. I was amazed by the IamA section where they have celebrities and people in unique occupations talk with Redditors. It’s beautiful, being able to communicate with people from completely different lifestyles. I remember reading a post written by a guy who claimed that he was a sailor. He was responding to the question: what is something that people don’t know about you profession. He posted a stunningly beautiful description of the wonders that he had seen on the sea at night while working as a sailor. And In my mind there was no doubt to the authenticity of his claim of being a sailor; his descriptions were so vivid that it revealed the posters identity as a sailor who reads and watches the ocean as his only means of entertainment. That was what really cemented my belief in the beauty of social media.


That couldn’t be done through Twitter, and it has made me doubt Twitter’s ability to be rhetorical. I follow several of my favorite writers and I’ve never read a Tweet from them that really captures their voice. So many of their Tweets are just silly simple ( truthfully boring) observations that anyone could make. But in contrast I’ve seen plenty of posts in a Reddit IamA thread where the vividness or even the awkwardness of the writing leaves no doubt to the writer’s authenticity ( they also supposedly have a moderation process where the celebrity has to prove their identity to the mods with identification and some other information that only that person would know). There just isn’t enough room in a Tweet to really capture the writer’s identity. Writers could resort to short abstract flash fiction but event then it just becomes “abstract” and the writer’s voice is lost. I know writers English majors who have amassed hundreds of follower from writing really short abstract lines of fiction. And when asked what any of it means the writer is always clueless. It’s done to be humorous but I think that that shows the type of meaningless environment that Twitter necessitates. When people talk about Twitter’s power they usually pair it up with real world events that give a Tweet meaning. But a Tweet completely by itself just doesn’t contain rhetorical weight. When we talk about the rhetorical triangle I think a Tweet inherently violates that audience to writer connection and is therefore not rhetorical.


But then I wonder if Reddit is really social media. There is still a level of anonymity even if good writing can reveal some truth about the writer. In retrospect, I see that in my projectmy I stayed in the Askreddit section of the site and posted questions to the community where I was trying to identify what burdens of social interaction still remain, what burdens are taken away despite interacting across social media. Overall people would say that they were freed by the anonymity of the site and that it allowed them to discuss things that they wouldn’t in real life. But if its so anonymous is that really a person to person interaction. If people are wearing an online persona that only comes out online am I really interacting with people or just a small facet of what makes up the individual.


I would say that at least among the Reddit crowd there seems to be cynicism about real face to face interactions. I believe that people turn to Aksreddits to ask questions that they can’t get satisfying answers to in real life and instead of digging into to inquiry with share thought they resort to Reddit. I would say that description matches me and I think Askreddit is brilliant. Therefore I would say that sites like Reddit are changing what we believe can be achieved through face to face discussion.

http://www.reddit.com/user/Mnstrzero00/?count=150&after=t1_c8hpn92

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.