The Coronavirus pandemic caused the fall of many already struggling businesses. The lockdowns forced many to adapt, or suffer severe financial loses. One of those businesses that fell hard was GameStop, a chain that specializes in selling video games. GameStop offered little minimal contact options, so their business suffered throughout the pandemic. Many businessmen were already planning on “shorting” GameStop, a complicated financial term but what’s important to know is they only make financial gain if the stock falls. That’s where the online forum, Reddit comes in.
I believe everyone should know about Reddit, as the website is a key example of the power of organizing on the internet. Reddit is an online forum centered around “subreddits”, essentially communities that are formed based around a specific subject. One of these subreddits, filled with Zoomers and Millennials who traded stocks, decided to shake the financial world. They banded together with a plan: To buy up as many GameStop stocks as possible and save the company from financial ruin. To the world’s shock, they succeeded. These teenagers and young adults caused immense loses to people who trade stocks for a living, which even caused a congressional hearing on the subject (which is a story for another time.) Clearly Reddit has immense power. The forum has made national and international headlines numerous times but one theme stays common. Through the power of the internet, thousands of individuals are able band together to create a great change. It’s an interesting phenomenon that even breaches international boundaries at time. I believe that, for better or for worse, Reddit has left a permanent mark on our world.
Prof L
Luke, you’re writing about a specific “event”—let’s call it an example of how a specific platform creates power. One interesting implication of your well-written take here is the potential similarities/differences between generationally-based and, let’s call them expertise-based communities.
I’ve read that there was a dark side to the GameStop intervention, in the sense that a bubble was created—but I haven’t fully followed the story. What I do recall strongly is the way that “traditional” authorities on the market could only understand the GameStop investors as misguided, as not really understanding the full context for their actions: the rhetoric seemed characteristic of a classic conflict between “insiders” and “outsiders”, one that could usefully be examined from a generational perspective….
Eduardo Olivas
As someone who profited from this r/wallstreetbets “scheme”, I can say that there was a lot of good followed by quite a lot of bad shortly after. The goal was to give more power to the common man by interfering with plans made by those who have inside trading power, and it succeeded. Unfortunately, many people didn’t realize that there wasn’t a sustainable long-term lifetime for stocks like AMC and Gamestop, and that led to some people losing entire positions after a large drop in price. I do enjoy seeing jumps in stocks that the public has invested in, and hope to see more profits for everyone in the future.
Luke Rapier
The line, “a lot of good followed by quite a lot of bad shortly after”, really describes a lot of what Reddit has taken part in over the years. Often Redditors will band together to enact some sort of change for the better, but in the end things go too far. I have seen far too many people doxxed over my years on Reddit. For those who don’t know, doxxing is the process of revealing private information about people to the internet to put it simply. I think Reddit is an interesting look into what happens when anonymous people on the internet gain too much power.
Prof L
That last phrase “too much power,” though—that’s simple language but a complex question—who decides how much is too much?
Paige Montgomery
I loved how this event showed how a group of people can come together over an online platform to create change in the real world. I do not know much about the inner workings of reddit, but I can imagine it was not created so something of this magnitude could happen. That in itself just shows how determined our generation and those around us are, the fact that we are able to take some form of technology and use it beyond its means, to shape it to what we want/ need it to be is amazing.