Reddit

Forums and communities where users share news and content for any topic you can think of.

Reddit is organized into community forums called “subreddits.” Each subreddit focuses on a particular topic. All user posts are added to one particular subreddit. You can view subreddit posts sorted by new or by popular.

You can subscribe to subreddits that interest you. This populates your feed of new or popular posts across all the subreddits you’re subscribed to.

Subreddit topics vary greatly. Examples of popular generic subreddits include:

• “aww”, where users share cute videos and pictures
• “news”, where users share news articles
• “damnthatsinteresting”, where users share random interesting facts (like this video of a 2,500 year old sarcophagus being opened for the first time)

Examples of specific subreddits include:

• “minecraft”, where users can ask questions about the game or see news, screenshots, or ideas shared by other users
• “gardening”, where users share guides, pictures, and discussions on all things related to plants and their care
• “writingprompts”, where users share writing prompt ideas, or write short stories based on others’ ideas and exchange feedback with other writers.

There really is a subreddit for every hobby and interest. You can get a sense of the kinds of subreddits out there by skimming the index of all subreddits. One of Reddit’s marketing ideas is that it has a community for anything.

Users can upvote or downvote individual posts, which sums to the post’s score.

Every Reddit account has an associated number called your “karma” count. If you make a post, each upvote you get increases you account’s “karma” count by 1. This incentives users to make good posts, so that the posts get upvoted and your total “karma” score goes up. “Karma” points don’t do anything. They’re just a way to demonstrate that you are popular on the site.

You can also comment on posts and reply to other people’s comments. And, you can upvote or downvote comments, which also gives “karma.”

Benefits

I think there are some legitimate reasons to use Reddit.

Specialist communities

Reddit can be incredibly useful for folks with hobbies or specialized interests, because there are subreddits dedicated to just about everything. Whether you’re into baking, the yo-yo, or backyard fruit trees, there is a community with both amateurs and experts making interesting posts and willing to help answer questions or celebrate wins.

I’ve used Reddit to ask and answer questions about Google Cloud Platform (my line of professional work) and video games I play.

Learning and entertainment

There’s no denying that many of Reddit’s subreddits are just fun to browse. There are subreddits for philosopical debate, jokes, trickshot videos, art and music of every medium and genre, dating advice, memes, memes about very specific topics (Lord of the Rings-only memes, for example), cute puppies, engineering projects, Marvel movies, …and on and on.

This segways into one of the dangers of Reddit: inappropriate content.

Dangers

Here’s my conclusion up front: Reddit can be a great tool if you have a specific interest or use case that would benefit from the subreddit community, and if you are a responsible, self-controlled user of the internet. But I would not recommend Reddit ever for unrestrained use, random browsing, or for users who struggle to independently stay safe online.

Inappropriate content

Reddit does allow pornographic content. And vulgar content. And if you’re using an account, there is no way to filter these.

Each subreddit has moderators, and each subreddit has rules for what content is allowed in that subreddit. Moderators can delete posts or comments that bully others or infract on the subreddit’s rules, but almost all subreddits allow swearing and some crassness.

Posts deemed “not safe for work” (aka “nsfw”) are required to have an “nsfw” tag attached to the post. You can configure your account settings to initially block “nsfw” pictures and videos, but all it takes is one click to dismiss the block. In other words, Reddit’s content filter is not effective for eliminating inappropriate content. `

It is possible to block access to particular subreddits, but it requires a Reddit Premium account ($6.99/mo at time of writing). Furthermore, it’s hardly possible to block every problematic subreddit or post. Even if access control was free, there’s always another derivative subreddit with similar content to the one you just blocked.

If you aren’t logged in, Reddit won’t allow you to view “nsfw” content. It prompts you to first create an account. This is one inhibitor to accidentally seeing inappropriate content, and is the main way I use Reddit.

Infinite content

Reddit users risk the foundational dangers of infinite content and infinite scrolling. See here for my explanation of these dangers for this and many other digital technologies.

Internet points

This is a smaller danger by comparison.

How they make money

Advertisements

Reddit runs their own advertisements service, and ads appear as posts listed among the normal content you browse. The ads look like other posts, but are marked as advertisements.

Subscriptions and “trophies”

Conclusion

Reddit is a microcosm of the internet without restriction.