As internet use became common, communities formed in different ways. Early examples would include internet forums, or message boards – think discussion platforms where people could hold conversations by posting messages and replies.
In the early 2000s a message board called 4chan was created that was anonymous by design. And posts made to it, and replies, were inherently temporary — or at least they would disappear if they stopped receiving attention from users.
While 4chan had message boards for all sorts of topics its anonymity combined with posts that would eventually disappear led to the emergence of an online culture that would seem strange and even extreme to many people who didn’t spend time there. Parts of it were outright extreme and even disturbing.
Our guest today grew up immersed in this online culture, and is now a researcher of it, so we thought he’d be a good person to help us understand this world a bit better as it seems to increasingly enter into mainstream culture, from media to public discourse, and the polarization it contains.
Guest:
Brian Friedberg, Senior Researcher at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, and coauthor of Meme Wars: The Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America. (With Joan Donovan and Emily Dreyfuss.)
Listen to our extended chat below.
WGCU is your trusted source for news and information in Southwest Florida. We are a nonprofit public service, and your support is more critical than ever. Keep public media strong and donate now. Thank you.
