While reading Hogan’s article and thinking to myself, “mmhmm. yup. yes. agreed.” etc., I realized that it’s the thing I value most about Reddit as a social network. His general premise, that “real name sites” like Facebook are necessarily inadequate for free speech, represents exactly why redditors feel that our site is such a cohesive online community.

Hogan’s point that real name sites deny people the right to be context specific is effectively countered by the site’s username system. Because though an individual user’s comments can be seen by anyone, his or her screen name cannot be traced back to him or her unless he or she decides to share that information in comments. As a result, users can provide honest answers and/or support to difficult questions about addiction, loss, secrets, legal, political, or relationship issues. They can very easily create “throwaway” accounts for this exact purpose so that even those who interact with them on other parts of the site don’t know about this side of a particular user. In this way individuals are never “[tethered] to a single all-encompassing key (the real name) that unlocks whatever [they] say.”

Whenever I see an article on ESPN on which I might ordinarily weigh in, I hesitate because it requires my thoughts to be forever inseparably linked to my Facebook profile and therefore my identity. However, if that article is shared as a link on Reddit, I will almost definitely share my thoughts.

Finally, Reddit deals with the necessary problem of curation when a site has a constantly updating feed full of millions of people’s content by allowing the content to be democratically voted on by the site’s users based on whether that content adds to the site or takes away from it. This way you are placing your trust in the community to decide who should read your content, rather than a single individual or company.

For my birthday two years ago I asked for a record player. My roommate at boarding school had had one for my junior and senior year and I’d begun to develop a small collection. I don’t like vinyl because I want to be a pretentious hipstery jerk. Instead, I like it because it’s one of the few aspects of my life in which I can’t customize my experience and filter out the things I do and don’t want.

In every aspect of my digital life, I can handpick things I want. I choose the feeds in which I’m interested, respond only to texts and emails I want to answer, watch only shows and videos that directly align interests, and generally only read blog posts about sports, technology, or the classes I’m in. I’m not exposed to new ideas because I have so much opportunity for choice.

A photo posted by The Wilde (@lukedewilde) on Jan 24, 2015 at 3:17pm PST

Of course, I pick the vinyls I buy and listen to because they’re by artists I like, but I don’t pick and choose which songs I want to hear like on iTunes or Spotify. I simply press start and listen all the way through, paying careful attention to the context of each track within the album. This manner of listening means I’m obviously exposed to tracks I wouldn’t normally listen to, and it forces new musical ideas on me, which provides inspiration, and also offers a rare lesson in patience in what’s normally an instant-gratification world. Then, when my favorite songs come on, it’s all the more satisfying and having invested the time to explore the whole album.

I recently learned about an awesome new app called Be My Eyes, a nonprofit, open-source app in which non-sighted or visually impaired people can pair up with sighted volunteers to help overcome problems that require sight using mobile video chat. The app allows its users to request assistance from available volunteers and for their service, these helpers level up, providing additional incentives and possible rewards for users willing to lend a helping hand pair of eyes.

This is a fantastic example of using the internet and social networks (in this case the model of a social gaming network as well as open source code) to do incredible, tangible good (to the tune of almost 10,000 sessions at the time of this writing).

Be My Eyes joins programs like Google Helpouts (which offers lessons and tutorials either for free or for payment) to offer interactive video assistance online. I am willing to bet these are at the forefront of what will be a growing movement towards a more resourceful, crowdsourced internet. They are part of an internet economy that is slowly shifting towards hybrid/sharing model for a generation that is beginning to show that it increasingly values social good as much or more than money.

Think/write about your own motivations for using social media and joining online communities. How are you motivations and goals similar to the early Wellites and virtual community members? How and why are they different?

It’s very difficult to compare the motivations in internet usage between its pioneers and present day social media users, because the internet itself was a very different environment than it is today. However, I think there are undoubtedly some fundamental similarities to our utilization of social media:

• encountering new ideas and perspectives (even if they are generally in line with things we already believe)
• become part of a community that engages with one another based on a similar interests
• Sharing advice, reviews and support
• Many platforms (especially Facebook) often serve as a pointer to other content similar to the WELL
• Many people today find new social media platforms as symbols of alternative community, just like WELL, Usenet and other older forms of internet communication

Those fundamental reasons for using social media can no longer encompass what social media has become however, as transformations in internet technology and ideology,  have vastly increased the capabilities and number of users to the point that many of our reasons for using the internet were not even options for its early pioneers:

• Maintaining relationships with almost everyone I know. Because most people weren’t online until the early 2000’s, this wasn’t even within the realm of possibility (see below)

• Using the social media to maintain personal and professional brands. Online profiles didn’t exist to the extent that they do today when the internet was emerging, and could not be used for commercial purposes, so no one could try to sell their music or advertise their company to you, whereas this is the main business model for much of the internet and nearly all social media platform.
• The internet is mainstream. It is no longer the countercultural, anti-establishment forum that it formerly was.

There are myriad other similarities and differences that I don’t have time to go into, but these seemed among the most prominent and relevant to me.

Hi! My name is Luke and I want to give you a little bit of background on me so you have some idea about the person behind the text. I’m a junior at Stanford studying Science, Technology, and Society, which will hopefully help put me in a position to be in the sports marketing or online music industry after graduation. I’ve been studying media and technology since high school and have always tried to pay close attention to the industry trends in order to better prepare myself the world outside of school, and because I’m genuinely curious as to how they affect us personally and societally.

In addition to my interest in media and tech, I’m a hip-hop producer and lyricist, adept panini maker, craft beer enthusiast, and lifelong baseball fan. I look forward to writing more about COMM 182 and hope you enjoy reading about it!