r/Language: The power of naming

Figure 1: Most popular topics in r/worldnews for 1 week in 2015 (Reddit, 2015)

Language shapes perceptions of places and things, (Kuttainen, 2016) and terms such as “cyber space”, “upload”, “sexting”, and even “blog” can affect the how the internet is perceived. Such words conjure up images of the unfamiliar (space) or recall memories of the familiar (place). When people name things they assign connotations that would not otherwise exist. Indeed, according to Tuan, “Naming is power—the creative power to call something into being, to render the invisible visible, to impart a certain character to things” (1991, p. 668). 

The Reddit community is defined by its language and its internal jargon (a list is here). When a user chooses to identify as a “Redditor” a sense of belonging and association with the website is created; they are no longer simply another user. This sense of community also exists within subreddits, but there it is not vocalised.  A member of r/conspiracy will not readily identify themselves in the way a person living in Queensland will call themself a Queenslander. Even so, identifying as a “Redditor” creates a barrier between the community inside the website, and the “others” outside.

Each subreddit has a name that evokes feelings of either space or place, depending upon the user’s perspective. A subreddit that discusses a topic of interest to a user is more likely to be thought of as a “place” than one that holds little appeal.  Similarly, the title of the subreddit can also have an effect on how a member perceives the “space” and “place”. Because of the dichotomy it has with r/Atheism, a member of r/Christianity is likely to avoid that subreddit, and instead drift towards a more welcoming place like r/Bible.  Conversely, a user of r/Atheism is likely to regard r/Christianity as a “space”.

The power of language and how it affects the perception of people, places, and things is true for all websites. The names given to Reddit and subreddits influence how a user regards the spaces or places of a website.

References:
Glossary. (2013). In r/TheoryOfReddit. Retrieved from:

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/wiki/glossary
 
Kuttainen, V. (2016). BA1002: Stories of Place: Story Lines. (PowerPoint slides). Retrieved from:  

https://learnjcu.edu.au

r/worldnews topic cloud- last 7 days. (2015). In r/wordcloud. Retrieved from: 

https://www.reddit.com/r/wordcloud/comments/3cjq2n/rworldnews_topic_cloud_last_7_days/ 

 

Tuan, Y. F. (1991). Language and the Making of Place: A Narrative-Descriptive Approach. Abingdon: Taylor & Francis Ltd.