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Introduction: A President Goes Online

Redditors R eddit is a superhighway of information, standing out among its competitors by allowing users to decide what stories and photos are important. Reddit allows its member to “upvote” or “downvote” a post, a far more complicated way to express the im- portance of a story or photo than the simple “like” on Facebook. In theory, voting allows the best content to rise to the top of the Reddit site, while the least-important stories fall to the bottom. Unlike Facebook, Reddit isn’t about corralling as many “friends” as possible or posting silly memes about cats. In fact, no one has friends on Reddit, although you can “follow” a par- ticular user and their posts. At its heart, the site is a high-tech version of the public square, where people can air popular—and not-so-popular—views. Reddit is so important to the online community that its members, so-called Redditors, are sometimes spurred to action. For example, in 2013, a picture of a sign on a hospital window went viral on Reddit, sparking an outpouring of love for Hazel Hammersley, a young cancer patient. At that time, Hazel’s fam- ily and friends taped the sign, “Send Pizza to RM 4112” to her daughter’s window. Soon after, Reddit users sent the hospital enough pizza for a very big and well-fed party. “No need to fear!” said the Reddit user who had taken up the cause. “Pizza delivery will be here.” In fact, there were so many pizzas that the hospital had to ask that

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