The fascinating and strange world of Web 2.0

I'm a user of Reddit. I stumbled upon it about 5 years or so ago after someone casually mentioned the website to me. We were having a discussion about some random topic, and he mentioned something to which I inquired where he heard whatever it was he was explaining. And he replied, "Oh, it was on Reddit? Are you not on Reddit?" 

I was kind of perplexed, as I considered myself sort of an early adopter of all things internet. I was up to date with memes, and was (at the time) using Facebook, and all of the other trendy social media sites. But alas, no, I had not heard of Reddit.

So down the rabbit hole I went. I remember being somewhat confused and annoyed when I first ventured to the site. It was sort of strange, and hard to navigate. There were things called subreddits, which were accessible by placing a "/" and the subreddit name in the URL bar. The search function seemed kind of wonky as well. So, first impressions were less than stellar. However, I signed up for an account nevertheless and dove in.

It likely wasn't until about my second year of using Reddit until I found my footing. I realized the power of Reddit was in subscribing to various subreddits so that your feed would be populated by things you were interested in. Also, I learned that Google doesn't seem to natively include reddit posts in its search algorithm, so you have to include things like, "Why is my cat throwing up so much Reddit" and it will include links to Reddit posts about cat puke. Hooray, I can learn from my fellow Redditors how to avoid stepping on cat throw up at midnight when I get up to get some water.

So this weird community sort of became part of my life. And the majority of my friends still don't use it. My wife thinks I'm strange for spending time there. My mom looks at me like I'm speaking a foreign language when I talk about it. So, in my circle it's really just me. And when I find someone who uses it there's always this sort of weird, "You too?" we seem to have. Almost like some secret club.

Again, this is my experience. It might not be like this for the younger generation. Maybe they're all on Reddit. I have no idea.

So I say all of that to give some perspective as I've gone through the readings and started thinking about Web 2.0 and how it's a part of our lives - from Reddit, to YouTube, and everything in between. As someone in the ISD field I have to acknowledge that people are learning things every day from the web. We go to YouTube to learn how to bake cakes, or build things. We go to LinkedIn to network with others in our field. We even go to Reddit to seek out answers about how to avoid stepping in cat puke at 12 am. Most of us now are produsers (what a fun term, by the way - I just learned of this term this week, and it's perfect). Many questions, so many sources of information from all us us users.

One question that came up this week is, "Are we really learning from these Web 2.0 experiences?" I think yes, and no. Or, possibly learning, but not really learning the right things much of the time. I think back to about that night I frantically searched for answers for my little furball friend. Some suggestions were left field out there, while some were downright dangerous. Sprinkled in between were some logical and sensible treatment options. 

So, we have to be diligent. We all know w that in today's world. There's so much dangerous and misguided information at our fingertips, so we have a duty to appreciate the medium and not just use it freely, but do so with a sense of self regulation.