Course:LIBR559A/Bernstein, M. S., (2011)

Citation

Bernstein, M. S., Monroy-Hernandez, A., Harry, D, Andre, P., Panovich, K., & Vargas, G. (2011). 4chan and /b/: An analysis of anonymity and ephemerality in a large online community. Proceedings of the Fifth International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media, 50-57. Menlo Park, California.

Annotation

The article aims to describe how online communities can have anonymous and short-lived discussions, since known identities and lasting communication are often pillars in the formation of communities. Studying group dynamics often falls under the study of sociology, and the study of online community dynamics is no exception. The community’s identity and culture are examined through a content analysis of posts from a two week period in 2010.

The main factors that distinguish /b/ from other communities were found to be the anonymity and ephemerality of posts. The board allows users to be fully anonymous, meaning that some users choose not to provide pseudonyms or any form of identity. The content is ephemeral because posts are rapidly deleted when there is new content, as opposed to the usual archiving that takes place in many online communities. Since there is a rapid turnover of content, posts have a short lifespan on the discussion board.

The authors found that users controlled the ephemerality of a post through “bumping” actions, and that the danger of interesting threads disappearing promoted more and quicker responses from the community. They also found that over 90% of posts were fully anonymous, and that anonymity may lead to disinhibition and mob mentality in posts. The authors thought that anonymity could also allow honest and intimate communication in some cases, and that the fear of “failure” (starting a thread and receiving no replies) could be lessened by posting anonymously.

Although the authors did mention the nature of the content posted on the /b/ discussion board, they neglected to comment on the content from a social justice perspective. Since the discussion board is known for posting racist, homophobic, sexist, abusive, and obscene in many other ways. The authors could have talked about how the purposeful incorporation of anonymity and ephemerality into the design of a discussion board could potentially lead to the perpetuation of social inequalities, and how it can provide a secluded and biased place for hateful attitudes to brew. Obviously, this is not true in all cases; however, the authors could have explored what factors contributed to the offensive nature of the board’s posts.

This article is valuable to the social study of library and information studies because of the group dynamic analysis of the increasingly common online communities. As demonstrated by the article, the design of a discussion board can affect the online community’s culture and posting habits. Designers of online community systems can influence how users interact and what content is ultimately produced.

Areas/Topics/Keywords

Online communities, group dynamics, anonymity.

Page author: Maddy Walter