Like a Little and The Dirty: Two Sides of the Same Coin?

This is my very first blog post ever, so be gentle.

Yesterday, in my sociology of communities course we were talking about network theories and  ended up talking about several different social networking sites. I was introduced to two new websites :The Dirty and Like at Little. These two sites are basically polar opposites but they have a number of similarities as well. The dirty made me want to cry (ok not really because I don't cry, but it if I did, it would have). The purpose of this site is to post pictures and mean comments of trashy people who have (usually) done mean things to the person posting the picture. Provocatively dressed girls are called out as sluts and men are called out when they act like jerks. Like a Little on the other hand, almost melted my ice cold heart. On this site, people post comments about the crushes they have and the cute people they see. This site is intended to facilitate anonymous online flirting. These sites left me wondering what is their purpose? How are they created and sustained socially? Are they really all that different?

I found it so surprising that sites like http://thedirty.com/ are so popular. At first glance, I couldn't imagine why anyone would choose to spend their time calling other people mean names. But I kept reading the posts. I ended up spending an hour basically reading one sided bitchy cat-fights. Strangely, the more I read, the more I thought about how much I'd like to post a picture of my terrible ex-roommate. But I didn't post her picture (even though I would have just cause for doing so.) I'm still a little puzzled as to what type of person would post such mean things. What separates me from people who have sent in these pictures? Am I different type of person than they are? But maybe it's not really a type of person, but rather a type of subculture.  I would argue that the only way these sites are even able to exist is due to the anonymity with which users can post comments. I bet if it was easy to track down the people who have sent in the photos, they would be less prolific. The truth is though, that rather than becoming less prolific sites aimed at airing out other peoples' dirty laundry are becoming more popular. When there are no consequences for action such as calling an ex friend a 'dirty slut,' then these comments essentially become socially sanctioned. In this cyber subculture, there are no rules because there are (arguably) no consequences.

According to Claude Fischer (1975) urban life allows for subcultures to be formed, intensified and diffused because of increased population density. I wonder if he would have predicted that subcultures would be able to do so regardless of  physical population density via the internet. Many of the people who frequent this site have likely never met each other. whats required in this case, for 'population density is  So if someone visits this site fairly regularly, then the comments and pictures they are seeing become normalized. They become part of a subculture where posting pictures and making comments about people they don't like is not only  entirely normal but actually encouraged (Fischer might say these ideas are becoming intensified). I bet Louis Wirth would see this website as evidence that this urban society is indeed becoming more unstable and mobile. Evidence that people today are forced into states of anomie due to the pressures of population density. However this argument cannot explain the existence of the other website I've mentioned.

The other website, http://likealittle.com/home  allows users to express inclinations towards integration and connections with others. Rather than segregating and destabilizing, this site could be evidence that the internet, and urban settings by extension, can open up more opportunities for building communities (aka subcultures.) This website seems to be evidence that people can still be nice to each other. Again though, it is the anonymous nature of the website that is facilitating these comments. Like a Little is often less anonymous than The Dirty though, and often the people posting could potentially find each other in real life. This site then, offers a stronger possibility of consequences; but they seem less frightening than the consequences that would follow a post on The Dirty. Like a Little also left me feeling a bit sad though. I am a bit disheartened that instead of actually telling people we think they're cute, we have relegated ourselves to anonymous virtual communication.

Although The Dirty and Like a Little could be said to have little in common I would argue that the same social pressures and underlying forces are at work in both these sites.  Maybe population density has nothing to do with the creation of this anonymous subculture. However these sites require a certain amount of traffic to be worthwhile. The level of traffic on the sites could be conceptualized as a type of population density. Both of these sites share the purpose of allowing users to post anonymous comments. These sites are in fact sustained by the anonymity they provide. They provide opportunities to communicate with the world without fear of the consequences. The traffic (read: population density) coupled with the anonymity these sites provide allow them to be an outlet for communications that otherwise might not be possible. But is this a good thing? Should we really be happy about the fact that now we can call our friends dirty sluts without them knowing we are responsible for their heartbreak? Should we be so afraid of actual interaction that anonymously flirting online has become an attractive alternative?

Maybe its too much to hope that everyone could just like each other and say nice things all the time.  But at least couldn't we live by the old rule "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." ( I realise that, clearly, I can't live by that rule. Simply by posting this I am effectively anonymously calling out both these websites.)