Affect, Internet Cats, and Reddit

Reddit loves cats. Well, except those over at r/ifuckinghatecats. Despite the h8ers, subreddits that glorify cats abound, including r/cats, r/catpranks, r/jellybeantoes, r/lolcats, and r/CatsWithHats. In what follows, I want to explore the connections between internet cats and reddit, particularly in relation to affect.

Cat in a Unicorn Hat

Adam Arviddson and Elanor Colleoni (2012) define affect as a “nonrepresentational thought” that signifies the “mood” of a statement or act (p. 144). In the media economy, affect is measured in three ways: number, intensity, and influence. While these measures are often used to determine the price of advertising space, they are nonetheless helpful for understanding affect in relation to reddit. 

Upvote Cat

First, “number” indicates the amount of affective expressions (e.g. upvotes, downvotes, gilding, etc.) that a media object on reddit (e.g. a post, a comment, a subreddit, etc.) has acquired. Cats as media objects generate vast amounts of affective expressions, typically upvotes, on reddit. Indeed, as Massanari (2015) points out, cats on reddit are “karma machines” (p. 117).

Second, “intensity” indicates the flavor and strength of a particular affective expression. The flavor of affective expressions on reddit is sometimes unclear. While official reddiquette states that users should not simply upvote or downvote based on “an emotional reaction”, Massanari’s (2015) interviews with reddit users reveal that many disregard this rule. Based on my experience as a redditor for over five years, upvotes on cat-related subreddits typically signify the affective flavor encapsulated in the expression “aww”. The relative strength of an affective expression on reddit can be determined when comparing different types of affective expressions. For example, gilding someone’s cat post is a stronger positive affective expression than simply upvoting someone’s cat post (gilding costs $3.99, whereas upvoting is free).

Third, “influence” indicates the social centrality of actors who express a “particular affective investment in relation to a media object” (Arviddson & Colleoni, 2012, p. 144). The centrality of a redditor is determined by a range of factors, including their total karma, IRL status, flair, gold status, etc. For instance, Cataliades, the IRL owner of grumpy cat, became a central actor on cat-related subreddits in 2013 following the initial post of her cat Tard. The conditions through which a redditor may become a central actor are partially dependent on the mods of a subreddit. Mods (both humans and bots) curate the kinds of media objects that are allowed on cat-related subreddits by creating and enforcing a particular set of rules (see r/cats’ sidebar for an example).

Grumpy Cat

Given these considerations, reddit can be seen as a “centre of affect.” According to John Urry (2007):

…places can be centers of affect if they are centers of sociability. Other peoples’ performances give liveliness or carnival or movement to that place. Many moving people with the appropriate habitus, indicate that this is the place, a place to die for, a place that cannot be missed, a place of life. (p. 265) 

Redditors give liveliness to cat subreddits via their affective expressions and media objects. While reddit may not be “a place to die for”, it is certainly “the place to be” for internet cats; as Massanari (2015) puts it, “[i]f the internet is made of cats, reddit.com… is its temple” (p. 1).               

Questions:

1. I can has cheezburger?

2. In a recent study on internet cats, Myrick (2015) suggests that online cat media is used by some as a source of emotion regulation. How might this inform our discussion of affect, internet cats, and reddit?