r/Nostalgia

https://www.reddit.com/r/Nostalgia

RULES

1. Be polite, respect each other and have fun!
2. Safe for Work links only.
3. You must include the name of your nostalgic item in the title. Why? Click Here (Note: This rule is suspended on Sundays.)
4. No posts to webstores with nostalgia items. You may repost image with imgur and provide a link in the comments, however.
5. If you are making a post for the 'Theme of the Week' is it encouraged that you preface the title with [TOTW] but this is NOT required.
6. Sunday Funday. On Sundays our "rule 3" is suspended and you may be as creative as possible with post titles.

Reddit.com is a massively popular social network website with endless “subreddits” (entries on Reddit organized into searchable areas of interest) that discuss anything from current political affairs to Brony subculture. In the year 2015 alone, Reddit, as a whole, saw 82.54 billion page views, 73.15 million submissions, and 725.85 million comments, which were created by 8.7 million total authors who utilized 19.36 billion words, 6.89 billion up-votes, and 88,700 active subreddits (Reddit in 2015, 2015). To refer to Reddit as an internet powerhouse hardly does it justice. For many, Reddit is “the front page of the internet,” and the smaller subreddits function as the metaphorical blood vessels of this monster of a social network, wherein they help funnel and delineate independent culture, mores, language, and social norms to the masses, keeping the community vibrant, functioning, and fresh.

Through the organization of subreddits, moderators are able to set rules, while the subscribers are able to submit content and participate in discussion utilizing the prescribed framework. As a community-driven website, the content and interaction on each subreddit varies wildly.  Some subreddits, like r/politics, are awash with subscribers, and they tend to lose any semblance of a unified culture. Other smaller subreddits, however, like r/Nostalgia, have a more easily discernible culture.  Each subreddit provides the visitor with a look into a specific culture, and the subsequent popularity of certain subreddits provides observers with a broader view of the Reddit culture as a whole. Unfortunately, with such an open-sourced and multifaceted community, this view of Reddit’s culture also consists of some more less than desirable undertones, due to subreddits like the (now banned) r/fatpeoplehate.

r/Nostalgia’s moderators describe the site as follows:

Nostalgia is often triggered by something reminding you of a happier time. Whether it's an old commercial or a book from your past, it belongs in /r/nostalgia. Here we can take pleasure in reminiscing about the good ol' days... times we shared with loved ones, both humorous and sad. So grab your Pogs, Surge cans and Thriller cassettes, and we'll see you in /r/nostalgia! (r/nostalgia).

It is clear from both the rules and the description above that this site is for those 80’s-90’s kids who enjoy frequent trips down memory lane.  Although the rules are fairly lax, the banning of Not Safe for Work (NSFW) material and links to webstores cast this as a fun, simple site, consisting of Imgur pictures or YouTube videos catering to individuals with a strong connection to their past. The subreddit lacks complete representation, however, with a strong skew towards Western audiences, yet it does provide a refreshing respite from the harrowing glimpse into humankind that pervades the majority of comment-driven social media outlets.  

As a subreddit dedicated to nostalgia, nearly everything discussed is in the past. The reflective discussion is quite informal, with active members posting on one another's recollections with whether or not they also remember the object of the post, their own personal connection to the item, and usually their age and location of the memory.  For the most part, the discussion is pleasant and does what it sets out to do by invoking a sense of nostalgia in its participants. For the more sophisticated members, that may be Norman Rockwell’s famous Freedom from Want (1943), whereas for others, it may be The Dancing Baby (1996). That being said, it is still the internet, so a post about the 90’s software KidPix does have a link to a pixelated phallus in the comment thread (u/DiscoDrive, 2016).

The general pleasantness that permeates most of r/nostalgia is in large part due to the moderators.  The moderators are given extra powers, which include being able to remove posts, comments, and individual users, as they deem necessary.  Although the content and discussion is driven by the user base, the moderators act as the gatekeepers of the culture, curating the culture to their ideal.  The moderators are internally policed by one another, and, in the case of public abuses of power, by the users.  The overall mechanism for “governance” is simple and transparent, with a good amount of “checks and balances”.

The only barrier to entry for r/Nostalgia is an internet connection and some sort of hardware to view the internet.  Posting does not require much more either, as creating a Reddit account doesn’t even require an email address.  Being a rather simple site, there is very little jargon, complicated posting acronyms, or rules.  The only alienating factor that may be present is the aforementioned Western-skew of things remembered.  One is free to post whatever they are nostalgic about, but the large, Western user-base utilizes positive reinforcement to support their culture through active discussion on familiar topics and up-votes.

A nostalgic sense for the over-the-top consumer-culture of the 80’s and 90’s makes for a less than serious r/nostalgia culture, which, in this case, is a positive thing.  The members of this subreddit are free to discuss the past in a loose, less-sophisticated manner that is tied much more to individual memory and emotions than to wide reaching and “important” issues.  For better or for worse, individuals have little control over their nostalgic childhood memories, and r/nostalgia provides a positive community to harken back to a simpler time without much fear of reproach.

Although it is completely understandable why traditional folklorists may have an aversion to the digital world, Trevor Blank’s assertions in Folk culture in the digital age (2012) has definite merit and relevance.  Social networks, like those seen in subreddits, provide a clear view of a particular culture. With its user-created and user-curated content containing little to no spin or outside influence, specific subreddits are potential goldmines for those interested in studying a particular culture or group.

As with previous discussions, it is clear that technological advances have a direct, observable, and positive influence in the humanities.  This holds true across all humanities, including the study of folklore.  Those researchers willing to take an interdisciplinary approach to their scholarship will be rewarded with faster, easier, and more nuanced findings.  Although Blank’s work is self-admittedly far from a comprehensive guide to collecting and examining digital folklore, his pioneering work in the field is vital to future research.

References:

Character Studio, (1996), Baby Cha Cha [ONLINE]. Available at: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/dancing-baby [Accessed 12 October 2016].

Blank, T.J., (2012). Folk culture in the digital age: the emergent dynamics of human interaction, Logan: Utah State University Press.

Nostalgia, /r/nostalgia. reddit. Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia [Accessed October 11, 2016].

Reddit in 2015. (2015), Upvoted. Available at: https://redditblog.com/2015/12/31/reddit-in-2015/ [Accessed October 12, 2016].

Rockwell, Norman (1943), Freedom from Want, Oil on canvas,
116.2×90 cm, Turner Collection, Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, United States

Unknown, (2016), Philips UltraChrome [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.tapedeck.org/400/Philips_UltraChrome_C60_111227.jpg [Accessed 12 October 2016].

u/DiscoDrive, (2016), Kid Pix phallus [ONLINE]. Available at: http://imgur.com/a/0fcs0 [Accessed 12 October 2016]. [NSFW]