afloweroutofstone:

The shift in the medium of popular online socializing from a forum-based format to our present individual profile system created trackable metrics by which social popularity could be measured and compared beyond the simple quality of reception that one’s posts get, which is an underdiscussed contributor to the hierarchy and marketization of modern social relations. In 2007 you’d just have to find forums for other people who were also interested in a particular topic and directly conversate with them, without being able to resort to follower counts or personal brands as a heuristic for legitimacy. Just a few random people all interested in early 20th century trains seeking one another out and starting relationships from scratch

If Reddit abolished karma it could be a utopia