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Depths of Wikipedia

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Depths of Wikipedia is a group of social media accounts dedicated to highlighting facts from Wikipedia. Created on Instagram by Annie Rauwerda in 2020, the account shares excerpts from various Wikipedia articles on a number of topics.

Depths of Wikipedia
Refer to caption
The account's logo, featuring the Wikipedia logo with a crown on top
Instagram information
Page
Created byAnnie Rauwerda
Followers1.455 million
(August 2024)

Creation

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Rauwerda in 2023 at Wikimania

Annie Rauwerda, then a student in neuroscience at the University of Michigan,[1][2][3] created the Depths of Wikipedia Instagram account in April 2020 as a personal project at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic,[4] intending to share various facts from the English Wikipedia[1] among friends.[4] According to Rauwerda, the project was inspired by a collage of excerpts from Wikipedia she had made for a friend's zine,[2] and by a photograph from the Wikipedia article on cow tipping.[2] She had been interested in Wikipedia before beginning the project, having spent time reading it as a child[1] and Wikiracing with friends through middle and high school.[5]

External videos
  The Joy of Learning Random Things on Wikipedia, Annie Rauwerda, TED Talk, October 19, 2023

Instagram influencer Caroline Calloway brought Depths of Wikipedia its first wave of followers, by boosting the page's posts on her Instagram story. Calloway had previously criticized the account for a post featuring an older version of her Wikipedia page, which listed her occupation as "nothing." Calloway's promotion of the Depths of Wikipedia account came following an apology by Rauwerda.[4][5]

After her Instagram account gained followers, Rauwerda created TikTok and Twitter accounts of the same name,[4] and launched a newsletter covering unusual Wikipedia pages in greater detail.[5]

Activity

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Rauwerda has cited this image and caption, taken from the article on cow tipping, as an inspiration for Depths of Wikipedia.[2]

Depths of Wikipedia has highlighted articles on topics including exploding trousers, Nuclear Gandhi,[1] chess on a really big board, and sexually active popes.[6] According to Rauwerda, she often receives submissions of Wikipedia articles to feature, but is selective in choosing which to post.[4] In October 2021, she said she was getting "probably 30 to 50 user submissions per day."[5]

 
Mimicking his photo on the Wikipedia page for shrug, "Shrug Guy" re-creates his 2006 shrug photo at Depths of Wikipedia's Boston show in 2022.

A Wikipedia editor herself,[1] Rauwerda has hosted an edit-a-thon, welcoming new contributions to the encyclopedia,[2] and enjoys taking photos to add to the Wikimedia Commons.[7] She also hosts live comedy shows based on trivia from Wikipedia.[5][4][8][9]

Reception

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Followers of the Depths of Wikipedia account include Neil Gaiman, John Mayer, Troye Sivan, Olivia Wilde and Lex Fridman.[10][6][11] According to Heather Woods, a professor of rhetoric and technology at Kansas State University, Depths of Wikipedia "makes the internet feel smaller" by "offering attractive—or sometimes hilariously unattractive—entry points to internet culture".[4] Zachary McCune, the brand director of the Wikimedia Foundation, which funds and hosts Wikipedia, called the account "a place where Wikipedia comes to life, like an after-hours tour of the best of Wikipedia".[4] In his book All the Knowledge in the World, author Simon Garfield called it "a great Twitter feed. It may suck up all your spare time."[12] Rauwerda was named the 2022 Media Contributor of the Year at the annual Wikimedian of the Year awards.[13]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Shamani, Joshi (January 13, 2022). "I Look For the Weirdest and Wildest Things on Wikipedia. Here's What I've Learned". Vice. Archived from the original on January 25, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e Stiernberg, Bonnie (January 15, 2021). "How One Instagram Account Finds the Weirdest Stuff on Wikipedia". InsideHook. Archived from the original on October 31, 2021. Retrieved October 7, 2021.
  3. ^ Agarwal, Aashna (January 5, 2021). "The Viral Instagram Page Diving Into the Depths of Wikipedia". Lithium. Archived from the original on November 2, 2021. Retrieved October 7, 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Kambhampaty, Anna P. (March 31, 2022). "Want to See the Weirdest of Wikipedia? Look No Further". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 31, 2022. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d e Cavender, Elena (October 24, 2021). "Travel down a Wikipedia rabbit hole with the mastermind behind DepthsOfWikipedia Instagram". Mashable. Archived from the original on October 26, 2021. Retrieved October 26, 2021.
  6. ^ a b Dunn, Frankie (March 16, 2021). "This Instagram account dug up the weirdest things on Wikipedia". i-D. Archived from the original on March 19, 2021. Retrieved October 7, 2021.
  7. ^ Rauwerda, Annie. "Annie Rauwerda taking a photo for the Wikimedia Commons". Twitter.com. Twitter. Retrieved April 6, 2024.
  8. ^ Zhou, Naaman (April 25, 2022) [April 18, 2022]. "Wikipedia, In The Flesh". The New Yorker. p. 19. Archived from the original on April 18, 2022. Retrieved May 7, 2022.
  9. ^ "Depths of Wikipedia Edit-a-thon — Programs & Events Dashboard". WikiMedia Foundation. Archived from the original on March 23, 2023. Retrieved February 22, 2023.
  10. ^ Fridman, Lex (April 13, 2024). "Andrew Callaghan: Channel 5, Gonzo, QAnon, O-Block, Politics & Alex Jones Lex Fridman Podcast #425". YouTube. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  11. ^ Bryant, Aidan (May 11, 2021). "Journey To the 'Depths of Wikipedia'". F Newsmagazine. Archived from the original on October 8, 2021. Retrieved October 8, 2021.
  12. ^ Garfield, Simon (September 7, 2023). All the Knowledge in the World: The Extraordinary History of the Encyclopaedia by the Bestselling Author of JUST MY TYPE. Orion Publishing Group, Limited. p. 309. ISBN 978-1-4746-1079-7.
  13. ^ Wikimedia Foundation (August 14, 2022). "Celebrating the 2022 Wikimedians of the Year!". Diff. Archived from the original on August 26, 2022. Retrieved August 14, 2022.

Further reading

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Depths of Wikipedia.
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