The researchers say the forum is an example of a “third place”, a term in social science for a hub that is not home or work churches, cafés and barber shops are all examples from the physical world. It is tempting to dismiss WallStreetBets and the GameStop saga as a one-off outburst from the murky corners of the internet. Those who sell are pathetic “paper hands”. Those who hold are “diamond hands” and heroes. The “degenerates”, as its followers call themselves, urged each other not to sell their holdings, calling on the community to continue sticking it to the hedge funds short-selling the stock. As The Economist went to press, the forum was coming to terms with the crashing price of one of its favourite stocks, GameStop. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who has expressed support for the forum, features heavily in its memes, accompanied by statements of devotion, such as “Daddy Musk is taking us all to Mars.”įinancial markets are the perfect focus for the community because they are ever-changing, constantly offering new material for commentary. They say that the forum’s foul language and crass memes, mostly in the form of humour, serve as a barrier to entry-new arrivals who are not committed to learning the community’s memetic language are swiftly driven out.
The researchers spent hundreds of hours reading posts and interviewing members. A paper published on January 28th by sociologists at the Georgia Institute of Technology concludes that, despite appearing chaotic and offensive to outside observers, to its members WallStreetBets represents a real and valuable online community. The forum has already become a subject of study.
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