Asshole or Not, Weak Ties Will Decide
By: Cliff Ahn
Tags: Social Media, Reddit, Sociology

Produced for a Virtual Communities/Social Media Course (Sociology)(2019)

Whether it's politics, the environment, guns, or sexuality people are going to disagree. With around 7.7 billion people on the planet, it makes sense that we have a variety of opinions. But regardless of the topic, we try to reach a consensus anyway for the sake of efficiency, safety, and even in the pursuit of truth. In pursuing truth, philosophers have spent hundreds of years chasing the concept of a capital T truth. With no objective truth, we instead arrive upon a collective moral code through which we base our decisions. We work out the nuances of what is good and bad behavior through debate, and this has been a constant iterative process practiced through laws and conversations. With the internet, however, we are now able to communicate instantaneously on a global scale and many of these conversations have moved to online forums. The subreddit Am I the Asshole (AITA) is one such forum for discussion where individuals can go to ask the question when a decision is difficult to make. I argue that the format, rules, and structure of the subreddit AITA reinforce an impartial forum where weak ties are well utilized to provide an answer to the question, “Am I the Asshole?”, while incentivizing long-term investment into the community through a combination of the flair system and upvotes which are clearly visible metrics of social capital on Reddit.

My experience with the AITA subreddit began years ago when I first came across a front-page topic that caught my eye. The actual question is lost to me now but the subreddit has stuck with me through the years. With a membership of over 1.5 million Redditors, AITA is a great place for moral deliberation regarding the questions “Am I the Asshole” or “Would I Be the Asshole” in regards to events that have transpired or have yet to transpire. I spent the last six weeks analyzing the subreddit's posts, comments, rules, and flair system to better understand how the multitude of topics was dealt with in such a civil and constructive manner. In particular, I paid attention to the rules of the subreddit and how the community members and mods worked together to reinforce the norms of the subreddit. I also looked at the flair structure with regards to social capital and how the subreddit managed to provide a badge of accomplishment for contributors that submitted the best answer to the posted situation.

In this section, I will outline how the AITA subreddit takes advantage of weak ties to arrive at a collective consensus while encouraging long-term engagement by collecting social capital through the flair system. First I will examine the subreddit’s rules with regards to Baym’s seven key concepts and illustrate how they encourage hyperpersonal communication as outlined in Tufekci’s piece (Baym 2010: 6–12)(Tufecki 2010). Then I will illustrate how the aggregation of opinions regarding the post (the post flair) is an accumulation of various weak ties outlined by Granovetter which explains why this collective answer is satisfactory (Granovetter 1973). Finally, I will argue that repeated interaction is encouraged in a novel manner through the unique user flair system that serves as an actual tally of Steinfeld’s bridging social capital, outside Reddit’s own upvote system (Steinfeld 2008).

When first accessing the AITA subreddit, one is greeted with the standard subreddit format. A pinned post on top with other popular posts underneath, with the metrics and rules to the right. There are 13 rules in the subreddit each with its own expanded explanation. Of these, I will touch on the rules Be Civil, Voting Rules, and Comments and Post Flairs and how these create a forum for debate that encourages hyperpersonal communication.

The first rule for the subreddit is Be Civil, and this rule sets the tone for all discussion on AITA, “The title of this subreddit is not an invitation for you to be cruel. The purpose of this space is to determine whether or not someone is in the wrong, not to tear them a new one. Be civil. Be kind. Treat others with respect, no matter how big of an asshole they may be.” (ATIA 2019). Of Baym’s seven key concepts for comparing media, this touches on the aspect of social cues (Baym 2010: 6–12). As opposed to the full range of cues available in rich media, the cues are significantly more limited in the text-based communications that happen in AITA. With fewer social cues, miscommunication can happen much more easily, and to preempt any conversation derailing the first rule clearly outlines expectations for how community members should interact with each other. Tufecki outlines the advantages of internet communication as “allowing for more honest, truer communication” (Tufecki 2010: 5) thanks to fewer social cues. This civility and anonymity encourage hyperpersonal communication as anecdotes are often utilized in providing context for both posts and comments.

Since community members are now aware of how they should interact in their text communications, the next rule outlines how the built-in vote mechanics of Reddit should be utilized. Instead of downvoting posts and comments that one disagrees with, community members are encouraged to instead upvote assholes and comment on why they are assholes or to reply with civil disagreement. This is important as downvotes kill visibility and encouraging comments inspires greater debate and engagement. By encouraging the upvote mechanic and comments, the AITA subreddit increases its reach through increased interactivity. This is important as AITA posts often reach the front page of Reddit allowing the post to take advantage of the enhanced reach to get as many opinions and votes as possible.

Finally, the comments and post flairs rule outlines the five possible deliberations suggested by the subreddit: You’re the Asshole (YTA), You’re Not the Asshole (NTA), Everyone Sucks Here (ESH), No A-holes Here (NAH), and Not Enough Info (INFO). These labels help define the overall decision the community has come to arrive at after the 18-hour deliberation period. This is decided by the comment with the highest number of upvotes, and the appropriate post flair (a separate tag that accompanies the post title) is added to the post. What would normally be just storage of the post is now enhanced by this categorization as the notation allows for enhanced readability of all the opinions both during and after the 18-hour period. This enhances the mobility of this data since the enhanced readability also promotes mobile reading. This aggregation of opinions takes full advantage of the multitude of weak ties that result from the public deliberation that occurs in the comments of each post.

Granovetter outlines the strength of weak ties as their ability to bridge groups, enhancing their knowledge sharing and encouraging the transmission of information between groups that would otherwise not have had the opportunity to interact (Granovetter 1973, 1362). This phenomenon is epitomized on AITA as the global nature of the internet allows for interactions between people of all backgrounds and cultures. With no other identifiers than a username and what they’ve written, community members are able to deliberate without being a part of any group, making each interaction a weak tie. Frequent visitors aside, many interactions are between strangers. As I read through the various posts and comments, I could see that posts with similar conclusions would receive vastly different numbers of upvotes and comments. This would sometimes be due to when the comment was posted, but it was also due to the reasoning as to why the commenter arrived at their conclusion.

Fig 1 Screenshot from subreddit r/AmITheAsshole

Take the thread “AITA for wanting to go to the funeral of a girl that I helped get addicted to drugs?” posted 3 months ago. This thread received over 30,600 upvotes and resulted in the “asshole” tag being awarded. The top comment received 28,400 upvotes and was by a user who had 128 user flair(Fig 1). The second most upvoted comment received 10,300 upvotes and was by a user who had 123 user flair (Fig 2).

Fig 2 Screenshot from subreddit r/AmITheAsshole

The top voted comment had well over 150 comments with tens of conversation threads debating and discussing the topic at hand. The top comment stated that they are not the asshole for wanting to attend, but would be if they did attend. This is different from the second top comment that states that the poster is the asshole since the family’s mourning is more important than the feelings of the original post (OP). Had the post format been just a poll with the five possible deliberations, we may not have arrived at what is possibly a more complete answer. Both state that ultimately, the OP is the asshole, but the first acknowledges the OP’s feelings of guilt then lets them know that the perception would be that of an asshole. This line of thought is echoed throughout the comments below and in other similar answers. Even in the second top answer, after the OP clarifies a piece of information, the commenter replies with more or less the same answer given by the top comment (Fig 3).

Fig 3 Screenshot from subreddit r/AmITheAsshole

By encouraging a space that judges while avoiding attacks, people are incentivized to divulge their true opinions and reasons. This opens up a meaningful debate that allows the subreddit to converge on a group consensus regarding an issue. With strict rules regarding post and comment content, the AITA subreddit circumvents the need for strong tie formation and highlights instead what I see as a ticker of bridging social capital, the user flair.

Granovetter measures the strength of ties through the amount of time invested, the emotional intensity, level of intimacy, and reciprocal services (Granovetter 1973: 1361). Strong ties tend to reinforce norms and information we already know, while weak ties work to bridge networks of people and serve as bridges of information. The cumulative opinion, which is a sum of the weak ties and their opinions, regarding the posted question is condensed into a post flair after an 18-hour deliberation period. The comment with the most upvotes is also the comment that has the most ties. With over 1.5 million subscribers and with monthly Reddit visits averaging around 1.5 billion, it stands to reason that many of the interactions on AITA are between individuals that have no strong ties. Even in a situation where two users know each other in the real world, unless one or both parties are aware of the other’s username, they would interact as strangers and therefore would act as weak ties. When one considers the usage of alternate and throwaway accounts, this is further strengthened as the chances of knowing a random user gets smaller and smaller. This is particularly important because this would then mean that the user flair, which tracks the number of top comments a user has written, would be a tally of how many times the user was able to form a value decision that resonated with a very diverse group of people. This is, of course, limited by the subset of the world population that uses Reddit, but weak ties would still dominate the discussion nonetheless.

Steinfeld brings up two main forms of social capital, bonding social capital which occurs between family and friends and bridging social capital that is comprised of weak ties that are great for sharing information but lacking in emotional support (Steinfeld 2008: 436). As outlined prior, the interactions between users on AITA tend to be weak ties, and this results in a more holistic answer comprised of the opinions of many different groups and individuals. When a user’s comment is selected as the top comment by the community, it carries the approval of many weak ties. This user flair is, therefore, a measure of how many times an individual was able to provide an answer that was approved by a massive group of weak ties. Thus, user flair is an indicator of how much bridging social capital has been accumulated by an individual.

This user flair does not afford any extra allowances or status and the response is what elicits an upvote or debate, not the user that is posting the comment. Just as there are many posts where individuals with high user flair counts claim the top comment, there are just as many where users with 0 or low flair that have the top comment (Fig 4).

Fig 4 Screenshot from subreddit r/AmITheAsshole

This is important because it allows individuals to feel good about the contributions they are making while also preventing them from exercising undue influence over the debates. Outside of accumulating Reddit karma for providing good answers, the users that exemplify the norms of the subreddit are able to show off the fruits of their labor within the community as well (Fig 5).

Fig 5 Screenshot from subreddit r/AmITheAsshole

Moralistic judgments are difficult to make due to the complexities of every situation. However, the AITA subreddit takes advantage of the reach afforded by the internet to gather as many different people’s opinions as possible to try and arrive at some sort of moralistic judgment. Regardless of whether this is the “right” answer or not, the final judgment is arrived upon through a public debate between many weak ties. By preventing personal attacks, the AITA subreddit is able to maintain an on-topic discussion and encourage greater reach at the same time through their rules reinforcing the virality mechanisms of Reddit’s algorithms. This impartial forum for debate is also a place for users to show off their knowledge and decision making through the Reddit karma system which tracks their total karma based on upvotes (+1) and downvotes (-1) and the AITA user flair system which tracks the number of times users had the highest voted answer. The format of AITA actively promotes healthy discussion while encouraging repeat interaction through the karma and flair systems. The format for discussion and the rules surrounding civility could be used in other contentious areas to help frame debates in a constructive manner. This could work well in politics if moderators were able to keep politicians on topic and engaged with the material while preventing ad hominem attacks.

Works Cited

Baym, Nancy K. 2010. “Personal Connections in the Digital Age.” Polity 1–49

Granovetter, Mark S. 1973. “The Strength of Weak Ties.” American Journal of Sociology 78(6):1360–1380.

Steinfield, C., Ellison, N. B, and Lampe, C. (2008). Social Capital, self-esteem, and use of online social network sites: a longitudinal analysis. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 29: 434–445.

Tufekci, Zeynep (2010). Who Acquires Friends Through Social Media and Why? “Rich Get Richer” versus “Seek and Ye Shall Find.” In Proceedings of the 4th International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (ICWSM, 2010). AAAI Press. Forthcoming.