Blog 7: Freestyle

Is commenting on websites a subculture of its own? 

Social media subcultures such as blogs along with many others are interesting in that they are almost subcultures of subcultures. This is because blogs, social media, and web applications to only name a few, are themselves considered to be subcultures of Web 2.0 (O’Reilly). Therefore, any product of those can be interpreted as subcultures of subcultures. For instance, Dr. Edwards’ lecture on 03/24/2014 required one to look at current websites in contrast to its older version on the web. The differences were large in many respects. Furthermore, when analyzing older websites a person may notice heavy use of links, gifs, and a lack of user interaction to name a few. All of which can be considered characteristics to web 1.0 (O’Reilly). Moreover, what a person can see with modern websites is that they are user minded meaning they in many ways welcome user interaction. For example, the ability to leave comments on a website is part of web 2.0 and creates a subculture within itself as those leaving comments are creating a community within a larger site. Furthermore, those leaving comments are the users who become involved and therefore interact with other users at times going back and forth about a given topic. Websites allowing comments can create subcultures within it as commentators hold mini discussions in their comments. From an anthropological standpoint it becomes interesting as a person can go to just about any website and watch a video, or read an article and scroll to the bottom and see a community of users commenting on the related media. It further shows our social/cultural desire as well as curiosity to become involved and want to further discuss matters with an online audience such as those commenting. Furthermore, a Youtube video for example will have comments bellow it with a subculture discussing relevant matters. This practice of leaving comments and interacting with an online community of members I would argue is a micro version of blogging. A person who blogs creates a community when others comment and they go back and forth in discussion, the same is witnessed in micro form among various sites when users actively participate and engage with others through the commenting feature on all sites. It can become entertaining at times just reading peoples comments to online articles, videos, pictures etc. Finally, It is interesting to note that subcultures such as the commenting community can offer further information and or insight on matters relevant to the topic.

REFERENCE

O’Reilly, Tim. “What Is Web 2.0.” Oreilly. N.p., 30 Sept 2005. Web. 27 Mar 2014. <http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html&gt;.