I see mods on the super duper serious sub reddits out there handing out bans and blocking comments for ‘meta’ what is this evil meta and why wouldn’t you want it discussed?
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While it’s hard to know the exact contexts without more details or examples, something that is “meta” is self-referential – it has something to do with itself. On Reddit, the term is usually used in a sub to discuss its own rules, as opposed to the sub’s “normal” topic.
Think of meta as meaning something on the next level of discussion or abstraction which is typically inwards-looking.
So a typical post here might be “*ELI5: what is meta posting?*” because that’s a straight up question.
A meta post would look inwards at the sub and examines it, so for example it might be “*ELI5: what does this sub consider to be a ‘five year old’?*”
So instead of just a first level question, a meta question would be a question *about* the questions or norms or understandings of the sub.
Another meta post would be “*Guys, can we please stop responding in comments with really condescending baby talk and childish phrases because that’s not what this sub is for and you’re missing the point.*”
See how it’s not a normal question but it’s an examination things on the next level about how the sub functions or operates? Meta.
TV shows like Community and Rick and Morty and Futurama often “break the fourth wall” and have meta humor, though Futurama is a bit more subtle in how they do it; it’s not just making jokes, it’s making jokes about *how* jokes are constructed, about how TV shows work, etc. (Idk, maybe Abed says to Troy “*But how are we supposed to build a whole pirate ship in 22 minutes?*” and then they slowly turn their heads to make eye contact with one another and excitedly say in unison “*A MONTAGE!!*” – a joke which isn’t ‘in-universe’ but one about how long TV shows run for and how they fit extremely time-consuming things into a short amount of footage, so an inwardly-looking joke on a higher level of abstraction.) If you know and like these shows it might help you to get a better experiential grasp of the concept of meta.
This is better in r/outoftheloop.
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