Reddit, the front page of the internet

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Today I am going to talk about Reddit and Reddit Culture. I have used Reddit off and on for about 5 years now and it is now my number one social media aggregator. So, before anyone says, “wait Reddit is a social media site”, it depends on how you use it. The way that I use it is so that I can see what news is happening in the world, what cool things people are doing, and to see some of the best and worst that the internet has to offer. I got into the site because Digg.com wasn’t doing it for me and 4chan had gotten way too weird and cult like. I felt like there had to be a better alternative. I had heard of Reddit before but was always warned about how awful it looked and that if you could get past the looks it was a great site. Though after the first time I saw how communities were setup I made an account that day. After that I really haven’t looked back since. Most of my teen life and all my adult life I have been on Reddit.

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            Now that I have given you some backstory of my time on reddit I will now analyses of pieces about reddit culture, one being a PBS YouTube video (Link) and the other an Article from Slate (Link). The PBS video “The Culture of Reddit” tells about several of the main culture points of reddit as a whole and on a couple micro levels. The Slate article “Please Do Not Downvote Anyone Who’s Asking for Help” talks about the Sub-Reddit called “SuicideWatch” where they have found better results to prevent suicide. Both of these have been given by one of my professor to study and I thought I could analyze them a bit better with a blog post.

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            The PBS video starts with happy go lucky music and a bit from an interview that they had done with one of the co-founders of Reddit. He introduces the video by saying what their vision was when they started Reddit in 2005 which was “The place to go to find out what was new and interesting online.” This for me was a shock since I did not know that Reddit had been around that long. Before Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, Reddit was waiting in the shadows for its chance at popularity. They continue they video with voice over of what makes Reddit a great place and why people use it. They then go over how to use reddit and what communities and moderators are to a community. Then the video goes into “The sincerity of Reddit” where they talk about some of the random acts of kindness Reddit does for its community. These include “RandomActOfPizza” and Reddit’s Secret Santa. Though I have been on the site for a while I have heard but never participated in either of these great Reddit traditions but love that they exist. Next, they shift into what they call “Gender Relations on Reddit” where it talks about how Reddit has a problem with women. That Redditors will degrade and shame women to the point that it will “get to the top all the time.” They then bring on the moderators of SRS (“ShitRedditSays”) who affirm what is being said and says that SRS is the place for those who Reddit has degraded. I have a supper big problem with this part of the video. I agree that there is sexism going on on Reddit but it is severely being pushed out of proportion and has gotten better over the years. With Reddit over 65 percent male it would make it seem to have pushed some women away but to say that it gets upvoted to the top often is a fallacy. In my years on Reddit I have only once seen a misogynistic post get to the front page of Reddit. Lastly the video touches on how Reddit fought SOPA and PIPPA which would have gotten rid of free speech online and made it very easy to silence websites from the internet. One of the co-founders talks about how they made their sites go dark to simulate what would happen if these laws where to go into place and it ended up catching to many other websites. By the end of the protest both failed to pass congress leaving it dead in committee. They then round off the video telling the viewers why they should join reddit in one last hooray for Reddit. In conclusion, I found the video having some really good points and others missing the mark. The longest part of the whole eight minutes video was 4 minutes talking about how misogynistic all of Reddit it except SRS which I have found not true. I hope though this video will get people who are familiar with PBS to maybe join Reddit and see what it is for themselves. 

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The other topic is from Slate and it is on the how Reddit is actually becoming a great resource for people who are seeking help to not committing suicide. The article starts by telling the reader what the sub-Reddit “SuicideWatch” is and how people can post their feelings getting responses from all over the world in return. The article then shifts to the perspective of Laura a volunteer on a suicide prevention hotline. At first, she says that it was the worst thing she had ever seen and that “I have to get this shut down.” Though after giving it a bit of thought and considerations Laura said “The subreddit doesn’t exist because anyone thinks it’s a good idea to do suicide intervention here. It exists because there are people who only feel comfortable here. And they need to talk to somebody.” The article then goes on about the history of the suicide hotlines and how effective they have been in the past to help people in need. Though the article tells why today this is problematic and how “SuicideWatch” fixes it. Today on the internet most suicide prevention sites are cutesy and are geared for females but statistically men are four times more likely to commit suicide than women. Additionally, since mental health is heavily stigmatized especially for males it shows why some don’t think talking to people over the phone would help. Therefore, Reddit is perfect the article says, since it has a 65% male audience it can fill that gap easily. They then go over how some people troll the sub-Reddit though trying to get people to commit suicide for their enjoyment but that the community and the moderators have destroyed these commenters with dislikes until they get banned from Reddit. The article then goes on to tell how Reddit’s suicide prevention sub-Reddit is affecting other sites on the internet. I love this article because it tells one of the many great successes of Reddit that no one really hears about. Everyone thinks Reddit is this big giant place where everyone knows everything but this story shows how it’s the communities themselves make Reddit what it is.

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I have loved Reddit since my first visit. I hope that some of the problems that Reddit faces improve for the future. There is never a place for bigotry and hatred but I also hope that it remains the free speech bastion of the internet it always has. To the future of Reddit, may you never wain in popularity and may you never stop connecting the world.

ET Phone Home (Evan Tinder)