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Depths of Wikipedia

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.

Creation

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

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.

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

Activity

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

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

Reception

Followers of the Depths of Wikipedia account include Neil Gaiman, John Mayer, Troye Sivan, Olivia Wilde and Lex Fridman. 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". 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". Rauwerda was named the 2022 Media Contributor of the Year at the annual Wikimedian of the Year awards.