{"id":82268,"date":"2025-10-15T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/?p=82268"},"modified":"2025-10-15T08:30:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T15:30:42","slug":"merriam-webster-social","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/internet-culture\/interviews\/merriam-webster-social\/","title":{"rendered":"The social media director who helps make Merriam-Webster go viral"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here at Mozilla, we are the first to admit the internet isn\u2019t perfect, but we know the internet is pretty darn magical. The internet opens up doors and opportunities, allows for human connection, and lets everyone find where they belong \u2014 their corners of the internet. We all have an internet story worth sharing. In <\/em>My Corner Of The Internet<\/em><\/a>, we talk with people about the online spaces they can\u2019t get enough of, the sites and forums that shaped them, and how they would design their own corner of the web.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We caught up with John Sabine, the social media director of Merriam-Webster and Encyclopedia Britannica. He talks about his favorite subreddit, silly deep dives and why his job makes him hopeful about the internet.<\/em>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is your favorite corner of the internet?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Honestly, it\u2019s the \u201cAskHistorians\u201d subreddit<\/a>. It\u2019s one of my few internet habits that I have that has kept up. I can\u2019t recommend it enough. I wish more things were curated with such level of scrutiny and scholarship. If people disagree, they disagree as Ph.D. people disagree. I don\u2019t have a Ph.D., but I imagine it\u2019s respectful. There\u2019s profiles and avatars, but those feel very secondary to the content. You lead with the \u201cwhat,\u201d and then you can look up the \u201cwho\u201d afterwards. I don\u2019t post on Reddit at all; I\u2019m a lurker in general on the internet. So I\u2019m shocked by how many people weigh in on things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is an internet deep dive that you can\u2019t wait to jump back into?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I have a bunch of articles that I have bookmarked\u2026 and my goal is to read one of the 400 articles I have saved. What I\u2019m looking forward to specifically is just to read an article for joy, that\u2019s not doomscrolling or part of my job. I do feel like when you have this job, you kind of get internet-ed<\/em> out every day. And also: crosswords. I want to get better at crosswords, if that counts. We have one on merriam-webster.com<\/a>, and I also do The New York Times, though I rarely finish it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s the last great story that you read?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It was on ringer.com<\/a>. A writer named Tyler Parker went through NBA names<\/a>. He just ranked their names, had nothing to do with basketball. I started it before bed, and I was like, \u201cOh, I\u2019ll skim.\u201d I read every single word. He really thought about the names and how they make people feel. And it\u2019s truly just how they sound like. That\u2019s it. It was written beautifully. That\u2019s a silly one, but I think silly deep dives are probably good for the soul right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the one tab you always regret closing?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Probably my calendar\u2026 And honestly, I always have Merriam-Webster and Britannica up. And I rarely do close them because I always need them for my work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What can you not stop talking about on the internet right now?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So Merriam-Webster is releasing its first print dictionary<\/a> in over 20 years. And they made it really pretty, and it feels like a really cool book that you would display. I\u2019m very excited because I\u2019m doing deep dives of old ads for an almost 200-year-old company. There\u2019s a lot of stuff to go through. Some of it we have in the archives, some of it is just out there. So just going through the old print stuff, finding old paper dictionaries. So, like, selfishly, I\u2019m excited for the new collegiate 12th edition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was the first online community you engaged with?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m a lurker, so engagement is a lot for me. The first time I probably posted was on a forum when I moved to Chicago to do improv comedy. There\u2019s a Chicago improv forum and I think I was like, \u201cWhat show should I see?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What articles and\/or videos are you waiting to read\/watch right now?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m waiting for the next [recommendation] from my group chats<\/a>. There are some people that will just send you anything, and you\u2019re like, \u201cOK, thank you for sending me this. I\u2019ll watch 30% of the things you sent.\u201d But there\u2019s the ones that you\u2019re like, \u201cOh, yeah, gotta watch that.\u201d So I\u2019ve got a couple friends like that, so I hope they send me stuff because Lord knows, the internet\u2019s huge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there anything about the way people engage with Merriam-Webster online that makes you feel hopeful about the internet?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Oh, 4,000%. Yes, doomscrolling is a reality of being online now. I know a lot of people who just step away and go outside and touch grass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there\u2019s still good stuff happening. The comment sections on our Instagram<\/a> and TikTok<\/a> can actually be really fun. People have genuine, kind, often funny conversations. It\u2019s rarely mean. Seeing that makes me hopeful, because people clearly want wholesome, thoughtful interactions.

People have a personal connection to language. Over time, I\u2019ve seen our audience expand to include all kinds of people who care deeply about words, even if they wouldn\u2019t call themselves \u201cword nerds.\u201d Language is personal, and I think our work celebrates that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And honestly, I feel more hopeful doing this job on the internet than I think I would if I weren\u2019t doing this work and was just online as a regular user.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

John Sabine is the social media director for Merriam-Webster and Encyclopedia Britannica. He is originally from Dallas, Texas, and he\u2019s never once spelled \u201cdefinitely\u201d correctly on the first try.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here at Mozilla, we are the first to admit the internet isn\u2019t perfect, but we know the internet is pretty darn magical. The internet opens up doors and opportunities, allows for human connection, and lets everyone find where they belong \u2014 their corners of the internet. We all have an internet story worth sharing. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1889,"featured_media":82269,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461998,464320],"tags":[4708,464099],"coauthors":[464117],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe social media director who helps make Merriam-Webster go viral<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The internet diet of John Sabine, who runs one of the web\u2019s most delightful social media presence.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/internet-culture\/interviews\/merriam-webster-social\/\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" 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