Reddit or “Read it”
A simplified definition of a digital derive would be taking or obtaining “something” from something else. In my case, I that “something” will be retrieved via the Internet, but what is that “something”?
I start my journey off by opening a new browser and loading the web page Reddit. Reddit is a social media platform dominated by a surplus of forums called “subreddits”; these subreddits host content is created by users from all across the globe. The amount of content that is stored within the platform is staggering. As I mentioned the users of Reddit for the most part control the flow and moderation of the content on the platform. Reddit has its corporate policies and structures, but users host many of the moderator positions as volunteers for the subreddits they like.
All of the content on my reddit account is completely tailored to my views and interests. However, I wanted my experience to be random and unguided. So, I made the decision to log out and clear my web browsing history. Immediately after Reddit reloaded, for the first 40 minutes nothing comes to my interest. My feed is mostly filled with politics, trendy memes, and advertisements. It became so easy to pick out every single post when they differ from what I’m normally used to seeing. It also made me realize how much information I am truly soaking in; especially on a daily bias when I am viewing content tailored towards me.
At this point I was ready to find something at least mildly interesting, after all I did just spend 40 minutes in pure boredom. I swapped over to browse Pinterest, a platform I use about every day. Honestly speaking, Pinterest probably has the highest screen time percentage on my phone. The type of content I view on Pinterest mostly consists of recipes, home décor, fitness tips, and a few other fringe topics. Like I said previously, I spend HOURS on Pinterest and I subsequently began to fall down the wormhole of Pinterest for an undetermined amount of time before I stumbled across a picture of a before and after remodel of a RV.
I clicked the link from Pinterest which brought me to thervresource.com, a website that explains things to think about when purchasing a RV. In the article linked, it talked about deciding whether buying a brand-new RV or a used one and the pros and cons of each choice. I’ve always loved traveling and a beautiful RV would enhance my traveling options ten-fold. I’ve also had this dream of purchasing a tiny home and renovating it, similar to an RV. However, I then realized this was all for my assignment and was brought back to the end of my internet journey. I end up at a RV dealership website, weird. I obviously don’t have the funds to purchase a $60,000 RV, but I did enjoy looking at them.
