Unit 4 [Tentative Anecdote]

First, I'd like to state that this is totally tentative, and may be completely re-written during the development of this final paper, but this is what I have so far. For those of you interested and don't think my explanation of reddit did it justice, take a look at this video.

Gerald Lappay

RWS 100

Professor Werry

November 19, 2014

Anecdote As Evidence (Paper 4)

            The Internet first impacted my lifestyle when I was about nine years old. Since then, I’ve been playing video games, posting on online forums, making connections, or doing some odd combination of the three. For many, especially people around my parents’ age, this is strange. I come home with an A on a paper I wrote, and soon enough my parents call bullshit and ask me if I plagiarized. Why? My parents reasoning is they don’t see me read – they just see me on a computer for about eight hours a day or longer. From anyone’s point of view, those eight hours go to playing video games, reading some posts on reddit (which I will discuss later in this piece), and what appears to be speaking to thin air or an imaginary friend.

            In my opinion, the internet media that affects my mental cognition the most is reddit.

                        What is reddit? For much of the internet, reddit is the gateway to everything                                 interesting going on in the world. Checking reddit.com is like reading the                                       newspaper, except that reddit is timely, interactive, personalized, participatory,                                     horrifyingly absorbing at times, and basically good (CGP Grey)

Reddit is great for discovering new things, from scientific discoveries to cute cat videos. A typical post on reddit has the following: a catchy one-liner title, an accompanying article/picture, a brief description, and lastly (and most importantly), a comments section. The comments section of a reddit post, like many other comments sections on other forms of media, is where minds who just got exposed to a piece of media collaborate and discuss said media. In the case of reddit, some of these conversations are wildly intellectual, and some are just downright cringe-worthy. But what makes reddit different than other internet hubs with a comments section? Well, with reddit comes a slew of “subreddits”, smaller forums within reddit that discuss a particular topic. There’s subreddits for cats, science, college, video games, and even things people find mildly interesting. Reddit has variety, and once a user finds their niche within this variety, collaboration between complete strangers comes into play.

            When I take a break from studies or video games (or even while I’m playing video games), I’m typically on reddit. Most of the time, I check the front page to see what’s trending amongst users. It usually ranges from intellectual The Atlantic or Huffington Post articles open to discussion, scandalous celebrity gossip, mildly interesting scientific facts, or a question of the day. The front page and its trending topics usually change within the next 45 minutes, so you never get exposed to the same stuff over and over again. But what’s important here is what people are saying about these things. I come across classy one-liners, lengthy expressions of opinion, to poor 5^th grade writing. Not only am I exposed to new information, I’m also exposed to new opinions and viewpoints.