Well, tagging in Reddit was a bust, and the entire class quickly realized that that particular format was not going to work there. It was funny, actually, to see how fast it happened. Redditors are a machine of anonymity and yet familiarity; they saw something that was going to break up the peace of their subreddits and squashed it within 24 hours. Much like the We Are Legion movie I watched about Anonymous. Our tenure in Reddit was brief. I appreciate that sort of decisive action. (And I also shake my head at it.)
But moving over to Twitter to tag and post bookmarks, that I can do. I love Twitter. It’s been very helpful to me in my social media life, networking, and it even assisted in procuring my last job. I use it to follow my favorite gifted and talented professionals, connect with fellow book nerds, cyber stalk Lin-Manuel Miranda or the Outlander cast (I kid about the stalking, but it is fun to watch people you wouldn’t normally connect with in a seemingly “intimate” setting) and I’ve even Twitter-spoken to John Hodgman, which blew my mind in a way that only nerd-fangirls can appreciate. (And it was about time travel! And he burned me with clever wordplay!)
But really the moments that I’ve found Twitter most helpful are the threads during major events. Most recently, Comey testifing, which you could follow #comeytestimony or the more cheeky #comeyday. All the tweets in that hastag follow the same line of thought. I always do it during UA football games because the commentary on Twitter is better than the commentary on TV, and waaaaay funnier. I’m also obsessed with British shows, and when they have their awards shows and my favorite actors are there, I enjoy following the thread about what is happening at the BAFTAs or some such gathering. The most somber one was the manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombers. I followed both Reddit and Twitter for information about the situation and both threads were more up-to-date than CNN or MSNBC. It was wild to see that happen.
When I first started this class, I was a bit overwhelmed by it, but it has settled to a dull (and more understandable) roar. Taking Reddit out of the equation has really helped with that. But I’m looking forward to really taking a bite out of the gifted blog/database I started for our Information Prototype project and adding more to that, and analyzing Twitter for my graduate assignment.
SLISing 
I have to tell you, your love of hashtags and twitter is inspirational. I like how you follow them when major events are occurring instead of just always watching the news. I would have never thought to do that! I can definitely see how that would be beneficial to utilize. While the news usually has to check sources and facts, anyone on site at an event can live tweet it using the hashtag of their choice. My only prior experience with Reddit before the 590 debacle of Summer 2017 was reading some of the interviews they have done with celebrities and athletes. I completely understand their reaction to us disrupting their subreddit culture. However, I do find their subreddit culture intriguing and can definitely see your correlation to the Anonymous group. Side note: I wish more people knew about Anonymous, it’s such a great topic to discuss.
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I do want to say two things, just to clarify: I know that using these sources are chancy – they are not vetted, but I do like their immediacy. The unfiltered aspect of it appeals to me, but I know to check my sources. The other thing is, I don’t know that I *love* hashtags as much as I appreciate how they can work, efficency-wise. When people use them to be cute or make them up to be humorous, I’m not a fan.
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Your meme pretty accurately captures my emotions as of last week, but I too find myself (thankfully) more centered this week. Having never before ventured into Reddit, I am not sorry to leave it behind me! I’m fascinated that found your last job/were hired through Twitter! I do know several people who said their LinkedIn accounts were what got them hired. And I totally cheat by using Twitter to find out what happens on my favorite British tv shows (like the Great British Bake Off or Poldark) before they air in the U.S.!!! I do think it’s interesting that the whole traditional “breaking news” cycle has been upended by Twitter, in which everyone at the scene, whatever it may be, can function as eyewitnesses and reporters. It begs the question of whether we need our news filtered down to us anymore through the traditional news outlets, or do we instead rely upon our social media networks for more up-to-the-minute information and diverse opinions? I can’t wait to see your gifted blog/database!!! As a voracious reader during my childhood, I still harbor a deep affection for children’s books as an adult.
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I appreciate the point you made about how information travels using twitter. I to enjoy keeping up with a certain group of people. I do not use twitter as often as I would like to but when I do engage, the information is phenomenal. I find that the use of hashtags takes me even further into whatever my interest is for that day. I tend to follow a lot of inspirational quotes and speakers, so for the most part when I want a pick me up, I can find some type of inspiration. Twitter is a great social media tool.
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I saw in your post that you talked about following hashtags during football games. One thing about reddit some people might not be aware of is that they do this on the sports subreddits but through a different mechanism. So, for instance, it is college football Saturday – there will be dedicated “Game Threads” about each big game going that day that everyone posts to if they want to talk about that particular game. The pace is really fast and posts will pile up very quickly because it is more like “live” tweeting something than traditional reddit posting. Just figured I would mention this since it is slightly different than the day-to-day activity on Reddit normally.
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