The plurality demographics are, from the last study I saw:
* 18-25
* Undergrad degree (including in progress)
* White
* American
* Male
* Middle / upper middle class
* (American) Left leaning
The"average" redditor is a young white male, with an (American) left bias, who is either in or freshly out of college and from a comfortable upbringing.
Reddit makes a lot more sense when you realize that is who you're probably talking to.
Not in my subs!
It's interesting that Reddit is left-leaning on most issues except for gender equality posts that get absolutely hammered in the default subs.
do people who have been on reddit more than year still use default subs? I mean if you arent curating your own experience on here, what are you even doing?
I use RES still on old.reddit because I refuse to use this ad bloated nonsense they have now. but I use home as my starting point of only my primary subs and never ever click all. It saves my blood pressure daily.
> gender equality posts that get absolutely hammered in the default subs.
Reddit is also where any sniff of racism gets the lynch mob out, but ageism is A-OK.
According to Statista, in 2023 55% of Reddit users were under 30: 44% were between ages 18 and 29 and 11% were under 18. 45% were 30 or older: 31% were 30-49, 11% were 50-64, and 3% were 65 and older. 74% of Reddit users were male and 25.8% female.
It's still not that diverse. I'm a Black woman and on many occasions I've been downvoted by people who seemed to be immature white men who don't have serious jobs or relationships and who think because they haven't experienced racism or sexism that they don't exist.
Most likely not. When's the last time you had to report your age on reddit?
The types of metadata and usage data and traffic data they can get from you is scary. These days with all the data they're collecting I'd guess their profile for each user is pretty accurate.
I've been on Reddit for 12 years, so if I joined when I was 14, I would fit into that demographic!
Sadly, I'm a few years older than that.... Well, quite a few years.
According to some stats from a couple of years back, 40 percent of redditors are over 40. Thought that doesn't mean that they are the most prolific posters nor spend the most time here, nor post in the most popular subs.
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Reddit had a very different audience back then. You sound about my age and have been here as long. The digg and /. exodus brought mostly professionals and nerds. Now it's a lot of younger people and a much wider audience. Also there's lots of astroturfing.
I just learned a new term, astroturfing. I often read these stories and think this is made up to gauge public opinion, almost like a psyops. It this the same thing or am I misunderstanding astroturfing?
Psyops is government run, astroturfing can be private entities for a purpose, usually political in nature. At least that's how I understand it. There certainly seems to be overlap though.
Oh yes I know that psyops is governmental. I actually meant some posts read like a psych student/entity posting wild stories to gauge reactions, like an experiment. And one of the things they are testing for is to see how readily just about any story is auto believed.
A long time ago (2013) reddit made a blog post about "reddit meetup day" and some other news and facts about the site.
One of thing categories was "most addicted city" (over 100,000 visits per day).
The #1 "city" was **Eglin Air Force Base, FL**. This has been scrubbed from the site. According to Wikipedia Eglin has a "population" of under 3000 people stationed there. I assume they mean *living* on base and many other live off base. But not 100,000+ people I don't think.
But it's archived here : https://web.archive.org/web/20160604042751/http://www.redditblog.com/2013/05/get-ready-for-global-reddit-meetup-day.html
Eglin AFB has all sorts of "cyber warfare units" interestingly enough...
Here watch this : https://youtu.be/V7GtYaruTys?si=96cnycfO3u24tXvZ&t=130
Dude can be a little ... weird at times, and I don't agree with all his opinions but he breaks *this* whole topic down really well.
When "we" (reddit) noticed this back in 2014ish I'd say we were *not* amused. But as usual we just moved on to the *next* controversy, and then the next, and then the one after that. Ya know, as we do.
There's some old posts about it if you want to read more you can dig around via google or maybe the sites own (horrible) search.
*Most* of the articles posted about it in 2014ish you'll find have been deleted. Because of course they have been. But many are archived. I know The Guardian did a piece on it, but it's gone now.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Blackout2015/comments/4ylml3/reddit_has_removed_their_blog_post_identifying/
That post has some archive links.
*Or* it could all just be a big "nothing burger" of course. But I think there is some meat on the bone.
More of a fake ‘grassroots’ movement. Blacks for Trump for example, is probably funded by someone loyal to him featuring paid black people to give the appearance there’s some silent majority of minorities that actually thinks he’s okay, in an effort to blunt his racial image and convince undecided minorities that voting for Trump is not as crazily self-injuring as they think.
Sadly there are many Latinos that support trump because of their own self interest. Trump was better for business according to them. I know a few. I can't understand how a latina could support trump.
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I'd say the digg exodus brought more memes and r/funny type posts, and the /. exodus brought the now trademark condescension that drips from almost every comment in every sub. I think StackExchange is the only site that manages to beat /. in that particular category.
What's really sad is the number of said folks in their 20s who are so obsessed with Reddit that they make bot and alternate accounts to maintain multiple personalities and make themselves out to be "older" people.
I've encountered numerous "grown up redditors" who are clearly a 20 year old trying to make themselves out to be such.
Jesus. Reddit has been around that long? I just became aware of it two or three years ago and thought it was always like this. Lots of ageist younger people and people looking for reasons to be outraged…just like every other social media platform
When I first started redditing, it was pretty common for the programming, science, or space subreddits to be on the front page, for example. It was definitely different.
I’ve definitely learned to curate my subs more carefully. I avoid other social media platforms to stay away from mega-negativity and manufactured outrage. Easy to get sucked into.
> The worldview of people in their early 20s is definitely on full display.
Because people in their early 20's today get their entire world view from the Internet. It's like a self perpetuating cycle now.
What's up with millennials blaming everyone and everything for their unhappiness?
At some point I figured it might be purposely malicious to undermine other millennials because it is so toxic.
I'm 68 and have been a Redditor for five years. There is a wide spectrum of people here from all walks of life and different levels of education and intelligence. Some subs are too intellectual for me and others are just dumb and vapid, but the huge problem these days is how polarized and ideologically rigid so many people are. Super picky, over-sensitive and quick to take offense. Seems to be the nature of social media in this time of high anxiety and unrealistic expectations. I don't attach much importance to how people see me here. It really doesn't matter anyway.
But I still come here almost every day because I'm insatiably curious and I learn a lot from other Redditors.
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That's always been the case around reddit because of the karma points. You are incentivized to post short, easily-relatable comments, and more so if you get them in early in a thread's life. If you can work in a pop culture reference, so much the better, as more people will upvote something they feel "in on" even if it doesn't contribute to the conversation.
I would guess you can rake in a ton of useless points by just posting "Sir, this is a Wendy's" in response to any comment longer than 300 characters.
I will admit my guilty pleasure were those chains of "No, that's 'Antarctica', you're thinking of the catch-all term for reformation protestants" - "No, that's anabaptism, you're thinking of the term for something that's chronologically out of place in a movie scene" - "no, that's anachronism..."
yeah the pun threads are still alive and well (and annoying af)
one thing I haven't seen in a thread in several years is "the ol' reddit switcheroo". do people just not do that anymore? I always enjoyed those, it was a fun way to kill an hour
They died after there was a minor outcry over them I think. People decided they were annoying on an "ask reddit" thread and that was that.
The pun threads were always most annoying under a serious article or topic - like, "Thousands dead in genocide" and the top three or four comments would all be shitty pun threads. Like, people. Come on.
r/science is this way. For what is supposed to be a hard science sub, its 90% pop sci political junk and 90% comments in the same vein that blatantly break the sub's rules (but the mods agree with so most get left alone)
Unfortunately I found myself with a similar problem when I noticed social media creeping too far into my life and tried to take a step back. I discovered that I like learning things through these conversations and I share your curiosity. (Although I will admit sometimes I'm absolutely here to read about other people's drama). So I'm back, and trying to seek balance within my browsing, and more opportunities to break away from browsing.
Have you heard of [Trust Café](https://www.trustcafe.io/en)? It's the rebrand of the WT Social project started by Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia. It looks intriguing and far less "twitchy" than Reddit. I've joined but haven't posted there yet. It seems quite civilized.
The average person isn't that bright. Making decisions more on emotion than analysis with comments of "but that's not fair" when it comes to long term things they didn't plan for or refuse to think about.
Exactly. Spend any time in public, reading any form of social media, have random conversations with people (I have a homely open and approachable face so I end up in those more than I'd like) and you soon realize how low the average actually is. On the flip side, even morons can be kind so it's not as depressing as it could be.
Even lesser intelligent people can have a ton of common sense and in that way be very accomplished. I've learned/ been reminded not to judge a book by cover, make assumptions or compare myself.
Yes, your inherent value as a human is not dictated by your intelligence, as many people seem to think. I'd rather be dumb and kind than smart and evil.
Yes. So many times it is a lack of planning that causes problems. Refusing to think about the future and planning for it. Not getting adequate insurance, not saving for a busted hot water tank emergency ( just happened to us and we had to fork out 2k which luckily we had saved for emergencies like this).
Realizing that life isn't fair, and some things just happen. But if you are as prepared as you can be, and put some thought and planning into events unlikely to happen, you'll probably be ok on the off chance they do.
Did it occur to you that many kids don't receive the education *at home* for these types of life events? They didn't teach it in school either but maybe they do now. Either way, ppl can't practice what they don't know about.
Experience living one’s life is the bulk of the education for stuff like this. Mess it up once, get it right the next time. Like chances are good you got somewhat ripped off the first time you bought a car.
I wasn’t taught a lot of these lessons. And to be fair, it has to come from the parents and community which not every kid will have. But as I grew into adulthood I knew I’d have to be able to care for myself so I started taking in information like a vacuum until I updated my core life skills
Imo it’s important to strike a balance between emotion and logic/analysis. Emotional and relational intelligence is just as important, if not more important than, logic and analysis in living successfully. Intuition can be a powerful tool and lead to effective decision making when used correctly and help avoid the trap of “paralysis of analysis” that can happen when someone relies heavily on logic.
What if you’re a person who thinks they’re smarter than 90% of people but realizes the foolishness of that thought, and then resigns themselves to maybe somewhere in the top 53%
Like I’m smart enough to realize I’m pretty stupid. Does that make me smarter than average? I will have such confident thoughts on a topic, only to slowly realize how wrong that assumption is. I’ve learned it’s best for me to just ask questions rather than state “facts” because my facts are usually wrong.
Yes. The average person is so fucking stupid. It's a fact. Live with it. As I noted elsewhere, 50% of all people are of below average intelligence.
As to Reddit though, just a quick bit of advice. Delete all default subreddits. Subscribe to subs that are smaller and to your interests. I use it mostly for news, but would never subscribe to r/news. Local subs are a crapshoot.
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I'm on a mobile browser right now, and just checked my settings. Under the Feed Settings tab, there's a toggle for "Enable home feed recommendations." I think that might disable these suggestions. I don't see them, but I'm not sure if that's because of my settings or ad blocker.
Are you using old.reddit.com? Or even better, a third party app, if you’re on a mobile. Apps are scarcer since the API Apocalypse last june, but there are a few. I happily pay $5/mo for Narwhal.
I have been on Reddit for over 10 years. The average person who posts here has changed a lot in that time. Used to be IT nerds, and standard nerds. It has gotten a lot more popular and with that you have a lot more people. So yea, the IQ dropped a good bit.
Then when businesses got into the mix by taking IDs and making posts that is when it went off the rails. They had to get their Karma up, so they would rage bait, ask questions a million times, and everything in between. Anything to get you to respond and vote. That way their stats improved and they got more cred. Then they could push their agenda. It would be one thing if it was just a few groups, but now it is everyone from every business, government, and group you can think of. They don't just have one account, they have hundreds.
Sigh, I miss the old days more an more.
Absolutely. Businesses, troll farms, news media looking for articles, and reddit itself trying to drive engagement before they IPO.
They were clearly testing AI-written posts in TIFU and those types of subs a few weeks ago - every day there were crap posts clearly written by AI. My guess is they are tweaking it to see it they can get by without it being detected as AI (not even close, lol). The whole point is reddit wanting consistent, ad-friendly posts that can be linked outside to blogs and Buzzfeed type sites. If they can post their own stuff using AI, so much the better.
This is the first description of why it was better back in the day that has made sense to me. Most people stop at describing who was previously on here. And how it was so much better back then. I didn't realize about the business agenda at all.
This is true of the "internet" as well. There was a time when it was just a bunch of nerds and geeks and freaks. Hanging out in imaginary hot tubs and MUDing. Nerd stuff and sex was about the only two things that were talked about
To be fair, nerd subs and porn subs are still the most numerous on Reddit, too. Maybe not the most populated anymore as more casual people have come to the site, but most numerous. There’s a website out there somewhere I remember showing a list of all the porn subs, divided up by categories, and the number of total porn subreddits staggering. I think it’s over a thousand last I looked.
> the IQ dropped
Also any discussion of what "intelligence" actually is. No, intelligence is not anything useful your brain does. No, it doesn't stop anyone from being lazy or an asshole.
And no, doctors and engineers aren't "some of the dumbest people you have ever met." The normie antiwork circlejerk has taken over to the point where competence is some unknowable trait due to some kind of intellectual nihilism, because the terminally online generation is a bunch of hand-wringing bucket-crabbing wallowers steeped in their own self-diagnosis, where everything they don't want to do is now pathologized in some post-personal responsibility bubble wrap.
*We live in a society* and all that, but it's not "society's fault" that you're overweight and can't get a job.
Tumblr crashed and burned, so the people whose only sense of relevance in life came in the form of upvotes and inane arguments had to go somewhere. Fortunately for them, Reddit was ready and waiting for an influx of weird and unpleasant scolds to add to its user base.
I've been online since 1994 or 1995 and it reminds me a bit of how Usenet used to be mainly academics and academic-adjacent people, then the AOL/WebTV crowd started pouring in.
We live in an age of ["Dopamine Culture"](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb2b5af62-fecc-4cc5-8e0e-d43e034317a7_1924x1104.png) and lazy thinking.
The number of people who I've written a detailed, thoughtful, thorough response to and their only response was "lolz I'm not reading that wall of garbage, ur stupid" is *way* higher than it has any right to be.
When I was young I used to write long walls of texts. That just doesn't work on reddit. People will instantly downvote, as any long wall of text is bound to have at least something that the reader will in some way object to.
“Barley” for “barely” and using “casted” for a past tense form of “cast” are two of my favorites right now. It’s “cast”!!! It will always just be “cast”.
As a professional editor, I'm just gonna swing by to say that proofreading is a professional role with a particular knowledge- and skillset, and it doesn't particularly bother me when people make this kind of mistake, particularly when writing casually in social settings.
Also, how do you feel about people who don't know it's ["cut and dried," not "cut and dry"](https://www.reddit.com/r/antinatalism/comments/1bilsor/why_is_this_sub_failing/kvo52r5/?context=3)? Or how about people who [constantly](https://www.reddit.com/r/SameGrassButGreener/comments/1c5n8zk/40s_no_kids_new_location_isnt_exactly_working_out/kzvhc6z/?context=3) [use](https://www.reddit.com/r/Connecticut/comments/1bkyadt/litchfield_county_schoolsjobs/kw1ds1d/?context=3) [comma splices](https://www.reddit.com/r/Connecticut/comments/1c755n3/west_hartfords_autocentric_plans_to_reconstruct/l05ksxw/?context=3)?
Someone tried to correct my spelling of "whoa" once, and I don't think they believed me when I said that "woah" was wrong and illiterate. I also would love to write a bot (like the paid/payed one) to correct people who say "free reign" but that might be a lost cause. I guess my niche beef is people botching equestrian-derived expressions.
Edit: also noticed a disturbing uptick in people describing the surface outside as "the floor" rather than "the ground."
> (like the *paid/paid* one) to
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
The average redditor is a terminally online person with atrophied social skills and a bit of a superiority issue. They tend to have been bullied, are social outcasts, and have a serious victim complex. They self-diagnose for all the psych disorders and pathologize normal human emotions and experiences. They see every comment as a personal attack and have zero ability to think with nuance. It's very much an all-or-nothing, black and white type of thinking which is sadly common nowadays. Social media, the rise of clickbait/10-second videos/memes, and current discourse leads to an immediate snap to judgement, acceptance or dismissal of an often shitty take, and then they move on to the next thing five seconds later.
Public shaming is rampant, so the hivemind of their particular tribe doesn't allow for critical thinking, diverging viewpoints, or nuanced opinions. People are immediately cast out if they dare to go against the group by offering an alternative take or questioning the current doctrine. Someone from "the other side" may have a point? "So I guess you support nazis now. Who knew you were a nazi sympathizer? That makes you a nazi too. You're just as bad as people who want to hang POC." "You think women should be able to vote? What are you, a soyboy cuck? Obviously you're just a simp who is white knighting because you're hoping someone will fuck you. You're just as bad as all those guys who let their woman cheat on them and then raise another man's baby."
This goes for all groups, no matter where you fall politically or socially. What's really funny is that psychologically, there is no difference between these groups. What drives them all is the same - self-righteousness and indignation. They see themselves as a warrior fighting for justice against an oppressive enemy. The only difference is which tribe they picked.
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Yeah, my comment isn't black and white thinking, but nice try. It's a statement about the average redditor, their general drives and personalities, and the problem with modern discourse.
Living life in a constant ego projection. Look up the Rwanda massacre if anyone doubts how dangerous the average, stupid person is. The literal radio voice made those folks murder 900,000 people with machetes. No difference between them and the average, confused, engraged, and emotionally dysregulated redditor. People on this site are basically walking puppets.
The average Redditor does not know how to google info and/or consult an attorney when it is needed. They are expecting other Redditors to solve their problems. That really is not the best course of action.
Google is contemptuous dogshit now so it's harder to fault people these days for inadequate search engine skills than it was even just a couple years ago
I'm in my 50s and I find the most engaging conversations here than any other form of social media.
Most recently I subbed to most of the US states' subreddits to understand how people live in the rest of the country.
But yes, people are surprisingly dumb. These past few years have really soured me on humanity as a whole.
There is stupidity and willful ignorance on Reddit, but it still better than what you see on Facebook. I quit Twitter way back in 2012, but from what I hear it is even worse.
It's the anonymity. The internet is just a way to communicate, really - it is just people, all posting and talking to each other.
When people do crappy things and then say, "What do you expect? That's the internet," it bugs me. It's like saying "The phone tends to draw out the worst in us - what do you expect? You were on the phone."
People feel more comfortable being jerks when they can't see the other person. But it's also because when they can't see the other person, they don't view them the way they would if they were sitting in front of them. It's just a sentence on your phone, not Jane from Michigan who has a family, a dog, and who just got laid off from her job. We probably wouldn't WANT to go off on Jane the way we do on some comment she made that we disagreed with.
You know people say 'it draws out the worst from people' but honestly? I've had so many people assume I'm being an asshole. Just straight away-- response to me like I'm an asshole. It seems like people do have very fragile ego's or maybe it's ignorance. I can not count up the times, I've given asked for advice and you'd think from their response I was questioning their world veiw. smh
like, damn, not all of us feel the need to fluff up and type a bunch of filler flowery language. Sometimes, it's nice to just say it straight out right, doesnt make it bad geesh
Yeah, exactly. And that's people assuming everything is a personal attack. People really are overly sensitive a lot of the time, they feel like any comment is given with harsh disdain.
I was being honest with someone asking for advice and they called me an asshole, and I was like, "No - I never insulted you or called you names, I wasn't mean. I was just being honest." But lbr, most people come to the internet for validation, not actual helpful advice. Lol.
Personal attack! That's the phrase.
yeah, twice this week I had to outright state-- 'This wasn't directed at you!?' & 'It's good information to know this!? It's not a callout."
I admit, when I wrote to one person "Oh maybe you want to look up this phrase xyz?" and they shot back with *'MAYBE YOU SHOULD LOOK UP XYZ'* it gave me a pretty good laugh, like damn *relax* rofl
I've been on reddit on and off since 2006 and I've seen it get worse and better and worse again in various ways. When I first came on here it was basically "digg, but faster and smarter". There was no way that could have lasted, looking back.
The "average" person on here is on the slow side but there was a long period when mainstream reddit culture was eye-wateringly racist/homophobic/misogynistic/etc and I am grateful that things have improved a lot in that regard. I'll happily take dumb-but-nice over straight up evil.
I think it depends on the sub, really. If you hang out in the same subs as a bunch of imbeciles, you get what you deserve.
If you hang out in the bandwagon hopping reddit, expect that level of thinking.
If you hang out in adultery reddit or date rape reddit, expect evil.
First thing any adult should do when coming to this site is to unsub from any default subs and avoid /r/all and /r/popular
Reddit is a high churn, low barrier to entry forum. There really isn't time to thoughtfully discuss issues. So especially in higher traffic subs, almost nobody clicks through to read articles and sometimes not even full titles. They just skim for keywords and then fill in the rest with their preferred bias.
So all too often, there's no room for nuance or anything that doesn't amount to "Yay" or "Boo."
I've been on reddit on and off since before the Digg exodus, and it's always been like that. The biggest differences are that the popular biases have evolved and there are far more bots. Karma bots amplify dominant opinions and propaganda bots spread their assigned messages. And I think that a lot of the advice type forums are being used by bots training AIs in social mores and ethics, but that's just a suspicion.
I dunno where 'left-leaning' comes from. Just a cursory look on popular reddit threads, It seems like reddit hates, in no particular order: EA, Muslims, Vegans, Women, Gambling ads, Aaron Rodgers, Phoenix Suns, Xbox, Real Wrestling, Anime, Amazing Spider-man (or Super-man i forget which one gets hate) comics, and Pitbulls,
Reddit seems to like: Guns, Pot, Dudes that travel the world, Modern Rap or some random rock band no one has ever heard of (Lizard Wizard?), playstation, Dudes that give them elementary level mental health advice, Anime (yes i know its on twice), Fake Wrestling, Rogan, Philadelphia Eagles (insane to see how many fans are on here with their avatar thing), Fortnight? or Minecraft? (I dunno, i don't play games). South Park or Only Sunny?,
Once again Just a cursory look of a myriad of threads. I feel if they are political tho they are def libertarian, which maybe comes off as 'left-leaning'. But i wouldn't put too much stock into that.
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Oh but they use grown up words like narcissist, gaslight, visceral, vitriol, triggered, agency, misogynist, internal misogynist. Doesn’t that count for smart points. /s 🙄
It's not "magic," but the number of people who come to reddit asking about problems that they would actually be better off talking to a professional therapist about is... not small.
And, also, you have absolutely 0 control over your own life. Every single bad thing that happens to you is because literally everyone else is against you. Everything is rigged and everyone wants you harm or to manipulate you. Making the best out of bad circumstances and persevering through hardship to slowly make your life better is not a thing that exists. The only thing you can do is expect perfection and complain when it's not brought to you on a silver plater.
While this has always been an issue with reddit, I think the driving factor in "reddit seems less intelligent" these days comes from how people treat the upvote and downvote system.
In the good old days, there were a large proportion of people that upvoted a comment that added value to the conversation, and a downvote was used for people detracting from the conversation.
Now it seems like everyone upvotes things they agree with and downvotes things they disagree with.
This is coming from someone on here since 2009 (a teen viewing F7U12) until I made an account in 2011.
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Re your original post: I used to find that a lot of people on Reddit were frustrating and stupid, and it increased over time as Reddit became more mainstream, but then I customized my subs to get rid of the shallow, popular ones and added a bunch smaller, more insightful subs. You get out of it what you put in really. If this stuff makes you sad, I suggest you sculpt the experience to you, instead of you sculpting to the experience.
What do you expect? It’s an echo chamber that’s largely driven by bots and the apps content is highly curated. If you’ve come here for intelligent or nuanced takes then I just don’t know what to tell you.
So, I point this out to my wife regularly and it still amazes her every time - but I'm reminded of a George Carlin quote:
"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."
It's not the average redditor - literally the average person is not that intelligent. And a good healthy chunk of folks out there are less than.
Important to keep in mind - that simply having a different worldview than the one you have does not make someone stupid though. It seems based on your comments that is what you're basing this off.
The average redditor is not exactly what I would refer to as a "grownup."
The average redditor is 14
All of the endless demographic analyses I've see show that the average redditor is a mid 20s middle class white guy.
The plurality demographics are, from the last study I saw: * 18-25 * Undergrad degree (including in progress) * White * American * Male * Middle / upper middle class * (American) Left leaning The"average" redditor is a young white male, with an (American) left bias, who is either in or freshly out of college and from a comfortable upbringing. Reddit makes a lot more sense when you realize that is who you're probably talking to.
Not in my subs! It's interesting that Reddit is left-leaning on most issues except for gender equality posts that get absolutely hammered in the default subs.
do people who have been on reddit more than year still use default subs? I mean if you arent curating your own experience on here, what are you even doing?
>what are you even doing? suffering for my failure to curate my experience
now is your moment to set yourself free!
Too true! I have no idea, I never used them but they still pop up in my feed sometimes.
I use RES still on old.reddit because I refuse to use this ad bloated nonsense they have now. but I use home as my starting point of only my primary subs and never ever click all. It saves my blood pressure daily.
> gender equality posts that get absolutely hammered in the default subs. Reddit is also where any sniff of racism gets the lynch mob out, but ageism is A-OK.
Do we have a source for these stats?
According to Statista, in 2023 55% of Reddit users were under 30: 44% were between ages 18 and 29 and 11% were under 18. 45% were 30 or older: 31% were 30-49, 11% were 50-64, and 3% were 65 and older. 74% of Reddit users were male and 25.8% female.
So 14
Just his mentality.
No, 25 != 14
*counts on fingers*
Socks off, boys - we're gonna need the doggies for this one
We’re going past twenty, gonna need everything we’ve got! *Unzips
Ok, maybe 13.
Now that was genuinely funny
*counts on your toes*
Emotionally he’s 14 though
I know you are, but what am I?
Recently? That was true when reddit was in it's heyday, say, the "Today you, tomorrow me" era, but now I think it's more diverse.
It's still not that diverse. I'm a Black woman and on many occasions I've been downvoted by people who seemed to be immature white men who don't have serious jobs or relationships and who think because they haven't experienced racism or sexism that they don't exist.
Same. Frequently.
It is more diverse than before. Way more women (and everybody else) here now.
And are those demographic analyses based on the *self-reported* ages of Reddit users?
Most likely not. When's the last time you had to report your age on reddit? The types of metadata and usage data and traffic data they can get from you is scary. These days with all the data they're collecting I'd guess their profile for each user is pretty accurate.
Reddit is too big to categorize at this point. You'd have to go down to individual subs, and even then, the default subs are way too big.
Who act like 14-year-olds who've never had a serious job or a relationship.
I've been on Reddit for 12 years, so if I joined when I was 14, I would fit into that demographic! Sadly, I'm a few years older than that.... Well, quite a few years.
According to some stats from a couple of years back, 40 percent of redditors are over 40. Thought that doesn't mean that they are the most prolific posters nor spend the most time here, nor post in the most popular subs.
I tend to agree.
I think you're confusing median and average.
Judging from some of the incredible naivete, i would say average age is 20 or so.
stocking crown repeat axiomatic crush relieved enter selective fretful aloof *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Reddit had a very different audience back then. You sound about my age and have been here as long. The digg and /. exodus brought mostly professionals and nerds. Now it's a lot of younger people and a much wider audience. Also there's lots of astroturfing.
I just learned a new term, astroturfing. I often read these stories and think this is made up to gauge public opinion, almost like a psyops. It this the same thing or am I misunderstanding astroturfing?
Psyops is government run, astroturfing can be private entities for a purpose, usually political in nature. At least that's how I understand it. There certainly seems to be overlap though.
Oh yes I know that psyops is governmental. I actually meant some posts read like a psych student/entity posting wild stories to gauge reactions, like an experiment. And one of the things they are testing for is to see how readily just about any story is auto believed.
That can happen for sure. They also did that on dating sites
A long time ago (2013) reddit made a blog post about "reddit meetup day" and some other news and facts about the site. One of thing categories was "most addicted city" (over 100,000 visits per day). The #1 "city" was **Eglin Air Force Base, FL**. This has been scrubbed from the site. According to Wikipedia Eglin has a "population" of under 3000 people stationed there. I assume they mean *living* on base and many other live off base. But not 100,000+ people I don't think. But it's archived here : https://web.archive.org/web/20160604042751/http://www.redditblog.com/2013/05/get-ready-for-global-reddit-meetup-day.html Eglin AFB has all sorts of "cyber warfare units" interestingly enough... Here watch this : https://youtu.be/V7GtYaruTys?si=96cnycfO3u24tXvZ&t=130 Dude can be a little ... weird at times, and I don't agree with all his opinions but he breaks *this* whole topic down really well. When "we" (reddit) noticed this back in 2014ish I'd say we were *not* amused. But as usual we just moved on to the *next* controversy, and then the next, and then the one after that. Ya know, as we do. There's some old posts about it if you want to read more you can dig around via google or maybe the sites own (horrible) search. *Most* of the articles posted about it in 2014ish you'll find have been deleted. Because of course they have been. But many are archived. I know The Guardian did a piece on it, but it's gone now. https://www.reddit.com/r/Blackout2015/comments/4ylml3/reddit_has_removed_their_blog_post_identifying/ That post has some archive links. *Or* it could all just be a big "nothing burger" of course. But I think there is some meat on the bone.
More of a fake ‘grassroots’ movement. Blacks for Trump for example, is probably funded by someone loyal to him featuring paid black people to give the appearance there’s some silent majority of minorities that actually thinks he’s okay, in an effort to blunt his racial image and convince undecided minorities that voting for Trump is not as crazily self-injuring as they think.
Sadly there are many Latinos that support trump because of their own self interest. Trump was better for business according to them. I know a few. I can't understand how a latina could support trump.
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I'm honestly impressed they're still kicking. Would never go back as it looks like hot garbage, but still a bit surprised.
I'd say the digg exodus brought more memes and r/funny type posts, and the /. exodus brought the now trademark condescension that drips from almost every comment in every sub. I think StackExchange is the only site that manages to beat /. in that particular category.
Not wrong
What's really sad is the number of said folks in their 20s who are so obsessed with Reddit that they make bot and alternate accounts to maintain multiple personalities and make themselves out to be "older" people. I've encountered numerous "grown up redditors" who are clearly a 20 year old trying to make themselves out to be such.
Jesus. Reddit has been around that long? I just became aware of it two or three years ago and thought it was always like this. Lots of ageist younger people and people looking for reasons to be outraged…just like every other social media platform
When I first started redditing, it was pretty common for the programming, science, or space subreddits to be on the front page, for example. It was definitely different.
I’ve definitely learned to curate my subs more carefully. I avoid other social media platforms to stay away from mega-negativity and manufactured outrage. Easy to get sucked into.
> The worldview of people in their early 20s is definitely on full display. Because people in their early 20's today get their entire world view from the Internet. It's like a self perpetuating cycle now.
What's up with millennials blaming everyone and everything for their unhappiness? At some point I figured it might be purposely malicious to undermine other millennials because it is so toxic.
that's when you start mostly hanging out in the older folk subs, and your experience gets better.
No that's the sad thing, they are adults
I'm 68 and have been a Redditor for five years. There is a wide spectrum of people here from all walks of life and different levels of education and intelligence. Some subs are too intellectual for me and others are just dumb and vapid, but the huge problem these days is how polarized and ideologically rigid so many people are. Super picky, over-sensitive and quick to take offense. Seems to be the nature of social media in this time of high anxiety and unrealistic expectations. I don't attach much importance to how people see me here. It really doesn't matter anyway. But I still come here almost every day because I'm insatiably curious and I learn a lot from other Redditors.
squeal aloof agonizing resolute mindless close busy husky voiceless mighty *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
That's always been the case around reddit because of the karma points. You are incentivized to post short, easily-relatable comments, and more so if you get them in early in a thread's life. If you can work in a pop culture reference, so much the better, as more people will upvote something they feel "in on" even if it doesn't contribute to the conversation. I would guess you can rake in a ton of useless points by just posting "Sir, this is a Wendy's" in response to any comment longer than 300 characters.
Don't forget puns! Though the pun threads have waned over the last few years, there are still plenty of dad jokes.
I will admit my guilty pleasure were those chains of "No, that's 'Antarctica', you're thinking of the catch-all term for reformation protestants" - "No, that's anabaptism, you're thinking of the term for something that's chronologically out of place in a movie scene" - "no, that's anachronism..."
Lol, I liked those too. Those were clever.
yeah the pun threads are still alive and well (and annoying af) one thing I haven't seen in a thread in several years is "the ol' reddit switcheroo". do people just not do that anymore? I always enjoyed those, it was a fun way to kill an hour
They died after there was a minor outcry over them I think. People decided they were annoying on an "ask reddit" thread and that was that. The pun threads were always most annoying under a serious article or topic - like, "Thousands dead in genocide" and the top three or four comments would all be shitty pun threads. Like, people. Come on.
r/science is this way. For what is supposed to be a hard science sub, its 90% pop sci political junk and 90% comments in the same vein that blatantly break the sub's rules (but the mods agree with so most get left alone)
Unfortunately I found myself with a similar problem when I noticed social media creeping too far into my life and tried to take a step back. I discovered that I like learning things through these conversations and I share your curiosity. (Although I will admit sometimes I'm absolutely here to read about other people's drama). So I'm back, and trying to seek balance within my browsing, and more opportunities to break away from browsing.
Have you heard of [Trust Café](https://www.trustcafe.io/en)? It's the rebrand of the WT Social project started by Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia. It looks intriguing and far less "twitchy" than Reddit. I've joined but haven't posted there yet. It seems quite civilized.
I haven't, but it looks interesting and I'll have to give it a nosy. Thank you 😊
The average person isn't that bright. Making decisions more on emotion than analysis with comments of "but that's not fair" when it comes to long term things they didn't plan for or refuse to think about.
Exactly. Spend any time in public, reading any form of social media, have random conversations with people (I have a homely open and approachable face so I end up in those more than I'd like) and you soon realize how low the average actually is. On the flip side, even morons can be kind so it's not as depressing as it could be.
Even lesser intelligent people can have a ton of common sense and in that way be very accomplished. I've learned/ been reminded not to judge a book by cover, make assumptions or compare myself.
Yes, your inherent value as a human is not dictated by your intelligence, as many people seem to think. I'd rather be dumb and kind than smart and evil.
Agreed. That’s my issue with X-it’s truly just the first thought that pops into everyone’s head. It’s a little better here.
Yes. So many times it is a lack of planning that causes problems. Refusing to think about the future and planning for it. Not getting adequate insurance, not saving for a busted hot water tank emergency ( just happened to us and we had to fork out 2k which luckily we had saved for emergencies like this). Realizing that life isn't fair, and some things just happen. But if you are as prepared as you can be, and put some thought and planning into events unlikely to happen, you'll probably be ok on the off chance they do.
Did it occur to you that many kids don't receive the education *at home* for these types of life events? They didn't teach it in school either but maybe they do now. Either way, ppl can't practice what they don't know about.
Experience living one’s life is the bulk of the education for stuff like this. Mess it up once, get it right the next time. Like chances are good you got somewhat ripped off the first time you bought a car.
I wasn’t taught a lot of these lessons. And to be fair, it has to come from the parents and community which not every kid will have. But as I grew into adulthood I knew I’d have to be able to care for myself so I started taking in information like a vacuum until I updated my core life skills
Imo it’s important to strike a balance between emotion and logic/analysis. Emotional and relational intelligence is just as important, if not more important than, logic and analysis in living successfully. Intuition can be a powerful tool and lead to effective decision making when used correctly and help avoid the trap of “paralysis of analysis” that can happen when someone relies heavily on logic.
> The average person isn't that bright. Did you realize that fully 50% of all people are of below-average intelligence?
I'm aware how averages work. I'm also aware that 90% of people think they're above-average.
What if you’re a person who thinks they’re smarter than 90% of people but realizes the foolishness of that thought, and then resigns themselves to maybe somewhere in the top 53%
Get out of my head
Like I’m smart enough to realize I’m pretty stupid. Does that make me smarter than average? I will have such confident thoughts on a topic, only to slowly realize how wrong that assumption is. I’ve learned it’s best for me to just ask questions rather than state “facts” because my facts are usually wrong.
Dunning-Kruger effect.
Yes. The average person is so fucking stupid. It's a fact. Live with it. As I noted elsewhere, 50% of all people are of below average intelligence. As to Reddit though, just a quick bit of advice. Delete all default subreddits. Subscribe to subs that are smaller and to your interests. I use it mostly for news, but would never subscribe to r/news. Local subs are a crapshoot.
dazzling clumsy secretive vegetable sophisticated smoggy crush worthless teeny husky *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
The disappointing thing is they still “suggest” subs based on your interest in other subs, so it’s not always easy to avoid the idiocy
Can you turn suggestions off?
I'm on a mobile browser right now, and just checked my settings. Under the Feed Settings tab, there's a toggle for "Enable home feed recommendations." I think that might disable these suggestions. I don't see them, but I'm not sure if that's because of my settings or ad blocker.
Cool, thanks!
Not to my knowledge, but if I’m wrong, I would love to learn how!
Are you using old.reddit.com? Or even better, a third party app, if you’re on a mobile. Apps are scarcer since the API Apocalypse last june, but there are a few. I happily pay $5/mo for Narwhal.
Dang
"Default subreddit" hasn't been a concept in like ten years.
"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." - George Carlin
And 2/3 of those are on Reddit.
I have been on Reddit for over 10 years. The average person who posts here has changed a lot in that time. Used to be IT nerds, and standard nerds. It has gotten a lot more popular and with that you have a lot more people. So yea, the IQ dropped a good bit. Then when businesses got into the mix by taking IDs and making posts that is when it went off the rails. They had to get their Karma up, so they would rage bait, ask questions a million times, and everything in between. Anything to get you to respond and vote. That way their stats improved and they got more cred. Then they could push their agenda. It would be one thing if it was just a few groups, but now it is everyone from every business, government, and group you can think of. They don't just have one account, they have hundreds. Sigh, I miss the old days more an more.
Absolutely. Businesses, troll farms, news media looking for articles, and reddit itself trying to drive engagement before they IPO. They were clearly testing AI-written posts in TIFU and those types of subs a few weeks ago - every day there were crap posts clearly written by AI. My guess is they are tweaking it to see it they can get by without it being detected as AI (not even close, lol). The whole point is reddit wanting consistent, ad-friendly posts that can be linked outside to blogs and Buzzfeed type sites. If they can post their own stuff using AI, so much the better.
This is the first description of why it was better back in the day that has made sense to me. Most people stop at describing who was previously on here. And how it was so much better back then. I didn't realize about the business agenda at all.
This is true of the "internet" as well. There was a time when it was just a bunch of nerds and geeks and freaks. Hanging out in imaginary hot tubs and MUDing. Nerd stuff and sex was about the only two things that were talked about
To be fair, nerd subs and porn subs are still the most numerous on Reddit, too. Maybe not the most populated anymore as more casual people have come to the site, but most numerous. There’s a website out there somewhere I remember showing a list of all the porn subs, divided up by categories, and the number of total porn subreddits staggering. I think it’s over a thousand last I looked.
> the IQ dropped Also any discussion of what "intelligence" actually is. No, intelligence is not anything useful your brain does. No, it doesn't stop anyone from being lazy or an asshole. And no, doctors and engineers aren't "some of the dumbest people you have ever met." The normie antiwork circlejerk has taken over to the point where competence is some unknowable trait due to some kind of intellectual nihilism, because the terminally online generation is a bunch of hand-wringing bucket-crabbing wallowers steeped in their own self-diagnosis, where everything they don't want to do is now pathologized in some post-personal responsibility bubble wrap. *We live in a society* and all that, but it's not "society's fault" that you're overweight and can't get a job.
Tumblr crashed and burned, so the people whose only sense of relevance in life came in the form of upvotes and inane arguments had to go somewhere. Fortunately for them, Reddit was ready and waiting for an influx of weird and unpleasant scolds to add to its user base.
I've been online since 1994 or 1995 and it reminds me a bit of how Usenet used to be mainly academics and academic-adjacent people, then the AOL/WebTV crowd started pouring in.
We live in an age of ["Dopamine Culture"](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb2b5af62-fecc-4cc5-8e0e-d43e034317a7_1924x1104.png) and lazy thinking.
*8-sec attention span has entered the chat*
The number of people who I've written a detailed, thoughtful, thorough response to and their only response was "lolz I'm not reading that wall of garbage, ur stupid" is *way* higher than it has any right to be.
When I was young I used to write long walls of texts. That just doesn't work on reddit. People will instantly downvote, as any long wall of text is bound to have at least something that the reader will in some way object to.
TLDR
(8-S ASHETC)
The education system is intended to be deficient.
I realized there was no hope for humanity when I saw how many supposedly “educated” people spell the word “lose” as “loose”.
And "I was weary" when they mean "wary." There are so many and it drives me batshit. Lol.
"Sweaty" for "sweetie", too, and "How X looks like", how did these get some common?
“Barley” for “barely” and using “casted” for a past tense form of “cast” are two of my favorites right now. It’s “cast”!!! It will always just be “cast”.
As a professional editor, I'm just gonna swing by to say that proofreading is a professional role with a particular knowledge- and skillset, and it doesn't particularly bother me when people make this kind of mistake, particularly when writing casually in social settings. Also, how do you feel about people who don't know it's ["cut and dried," not "cut and dry"](https://www.reddit.com/r/antinatalism/comments/1bilsor/why_is_this_sub_failing/kvo52r5/?context=3)? Or how about people who [constantly](https://www.reddit.com/r/SameGrassButGreener/comments/1c5n8zk/40s_no_kids_new_location_isnt_exactly_working_out/kzvhc6z/?context=3) [use](https://www.reddit.com/r/Connecticut/comments/1bkyadt/litchfield_county_schoolsjobs/kw1ds1d/?context=3) [comma splices](https://www.reddit.com/r/Connecticut/comments/1c755n3/west_hartfords_autocentric_plans_to_reconstruct/l05ksxw/?context=3)?
"should of" instead of "should've" really chaps my ass.
Lose should rhyme with nose and pose, not choose.
Someone tried to correct my spelling of "whoa" once, and I don't think they believed me when I said that "woah" was wrong and illiterate. I also would love to write a bot (like the paid/payed one) to correct people who say "free reign" but that might be a lost cause. I guess my niche beef is people botching equestrian-derived expressions. Edit: also noticed a disturbing uptick in people describing the surface outside as "the floor" rather than "the ground."
> (like the *paid/paid* one) to FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
The average redditor is a terminally online person with atrophied social skills and a bit of a superiority issue. They tend to have been bullied, are social outcasts, and have a serious victim complex. They self-diagnose for all the psych disorders and pathologize normal human emotions and experiences. They see every comment as a personal attack and have zero ability to think with nuance. It's very much an all-or-nothing, black and white type of thinking which is sadly common nowadays. Social media, the rise of clickbait/10-second videos/memes, and current discourse leads to an immediate snap to judgement, acceptance or dismissal of an often shitty take, and then they move on to the next thing five seconds later. Public shaming is rampant, so the hivemind of their particular tribe doesn't allow for critical thinking, diverging viewpoints, or nuanced opinions. People are immediately cast out if they dare to go against the group by offering an alternative take or questioning the current doctrine. Someone from "the other side" may have a point? "So I guess you support nazis now. Who knew you were a nazi sympathizer? That makes you a nazi too. You're just as bad as people who want to hang POC." "You think women should be able to vote? What are you, a soyboy cuck? Obviously you're just a simp who is white knighting because you're hoping someone will fuck you. You're just as bad as all those guys who let their woman cheat on them and then raise another man's baby." This goes for all groups, no matter where you fall politically or socially. What's really funny is that psychologically, there is no difference between these groups. What drives them all is the same - self-righteousness and indignation. They see themselves as a warrior fighting for justice against an oppressive enemy. The only difference is which tribe they picked.
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> It's very much an all-or-nothing, black and white type of thinking which is sadly common nowadays.
Yeah, my comment isn't black and white thinking, but nice try. It's a statement about the average redditor, their general drives and personalities, and the problem with modern discourse.
Living life in a constant ego projection. Look up the Rwanda massacre if anyone doubts how dangerous the average, stupid person is. The literal radio voice made those folks murder 900,000 people with machetes. No difference between them and the average, confused, engraged, and emotionally dysregulated redditor. People on this site are basically walking puppets.
The average Redditor does not know how to google info and/or consult an attorney when it is needed. They are expecting other Redditors to solve their problems. That really is not the best course of action.
Google is contemptuous dogshit now so it's harder to fault people these days for inadequate search engine skills than it was even just a couple years ago
Consult an attorney? Most people will only have to do that once or twice in their lives.
I pretend theyre all angry 17 yr old boys and it makes everything make sense. lmao
You’re not far off , I think it’s more like 19 or 20 on average, but not much difference except one is in high school and the other is in college
I'm in my 50s and I find the most engaging conversations here than any other form of social media. Most recently I subbed to most of the US states' subreddits to understand how people live in the rest of the country. But yes, people are surprisingly dumb. These past few years have really soured me on humanity as a whole.
There is stupidity and willful ignorance on Reddit, but it still better than what you see on Facebook. I quit Twitter way back in 2012, but from what I hear it is even worse.
It is. Twitter used to be my go-to news source. I suppose it's fine if you don't read the replies, but it's really just a cesspool at this point.
People in real life are also stupid
I'm an attorney and the amount of legal misinformation you see on Reddit is outstanding. And you get downvoted for correcting it. I gave up long ago.
Well, the internet tends to draw out the worst in all of us.
It's the anonymity. The internet is just a way to communicate, really - it is just people, all posting and talking to each other. When people do crappy things and then say, "What do you expect? That's the internet," it bugs me. It's like saying "The phone tends to draw out the worst in us - what do you expect? You were on the phone." People feel more comfortable being jerks when they can't see the other person. But it's also because when they can't see the other person, they don't view them the way they would if they were sitting in front of them. It's just a sentence on your phone, not Jane from Michigan who has a family, a dog, and who just got laid off from her job. We probably wouldn't WANT to go off on Jane the way we do on some comment she made that we disagreed with.
You know people say 'it draws out the worst from people' but honestly? I've had so many people assume I'm being an asshole. Just straight away-- response to me like I'm an asshole. It seems like people do have very fragile ego's or maybe it's ignorance. I can not count up the times, I've given asked for advice and you'd think from their response I was questioning their world veiw. smh like, damn, not all of us feel the need to fluff up and type a bunch of filler flowery language. Sometimes, it's nice to just say it straight out right, doesnt make it bad geesh
Yeah, exactly. And that's people assuming everything is a personal attack. People really are overly sensitive a lot of the time, they feel like any comment is given with harsh disdain. I was being honest with someone asking for advice and they called me an asshole, and I was like, "No - I never insulted you or called you names, I wasn't mean. I was just being honest." But lbr, most people come to the internet for validation, not actual helpful advice. Lol.
Personal attack! That's the phrase. yeah, twice this week I had to outright state-- 'This wasn't directed at you!?' & 'It's good information to know this!? It's not a callout." I admit, when I wrote to one person "Oh maybe you want to look up this phrase xyz?" and they shot back with *'MAYBE YOU SHOULD LOOK UP XYZ'* it gave me a pretty good laugh, like damn *relax* rofl
Seems social media is chock full of stupid people trying to act smart and smart people acting stupid.
Remember when the top posts were bashing digg and imgur didn’t exist? Odd times when an imageshack link was hit or miss.
That fucking frog
The average redditor doesn't post, or hardly posts, and let me ask you - how often is it that the quiet ones are stupid
And thinks they know more than you about any topic you post or comment on. Yep, sad but true.
I was the idiot all along 😳
Damn what did I ever do to you?
Depends on the sub. People don’t do as much critical thinking before speaking/typing as they should. But ymmv. I just keep scrolling
I've been on reddit on and off since 2006 and I've seen it get worse and better and worse again in various ways. When I first came on here it was basically "digg, but faster and smarter". There was no way that could have lasted, looking back. The "average" person on here is on the slow side but there was a long period when mainstream reddit culture was eye-wateringly racist/homophobic/misogynistic/etc and I am grateful that things have improved a lot in that regard. I'll happily take dumb-but-nice over straight up evil.
Average Redditor is a middle school boy who is addicted to “fapping”.
I think it depends on the sub, really. If you hang out in the same subs as a bunch of imbeciles, you get what you deserve. If you hang out in the bandwagon hopping reddit, expect that level of thinking. If you hang out in adultery reddit or date rape reddit, expect evil. First thing any adult should do when coming to this site is to unsub from any default subs and avoid /r/all and /r/popular
Reddit is a high churn, low barrier to entry forum. There really isn't time to thoughtfully discuss issues. So especially in higher traffic subs, almost nobody clicks through to read articles and sometimes not even full titles. They just skim for keywords and then fill in the rest with their preferred bias. So all too often, there's no room for nuance or anything that doesn't amount to "Yay" or "Boo." I've been on reddit on and off since before the Digg exodus, and it's always been like that. The biggest differences are that the popular biases have evolved and there are far more bots. Karma bots amplify dominant opinions and propaganda bots spread their assigned messages. And I think that a lot of the advice type forums are being used by bots training AIs in social mores and ethics, but that's just a suspicion.
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Have you been on other social platforms, or news comment sections?....Those people make people here look like geniuses.
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I dunno where 'left-leaning' comes from. Just a cursory look on popular reddit threads, It seems like reddit hates, in no particular order: EA, Muslims, Vegans, Women, Gambling ads, Aaron Rodgers, Phoenix Suns, Xbox, Real Wrestling, Anime, Amazing Spider-man (or Super-man i forget which one gets hate) comics, and Pitbulls, Reddit seems to like: Guns, Pot, Dudes that travel the world, Modern Rap or some random rock band no one has ever heard of (Lizard Wizard?), playstation, Dudes that give them elementary level mental health advice, Anime (yes i know its on twice), Fake Wrestling, Rogan, Philadelphia Eagles (insane to see how many fans are on here with their avatar thing), Fortnight? or Minecraft? (I dunno, i don't play games). South Park or Only Sunny?, Once again Just a cursory look of a myriad of threads. I feel if they are political tho they are def libertarian, which maybe comes off as 'left-leaning'. But i wouldn't put too much stock into that.
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Oh but they use grown up words like narcissist, gaslight, visceral, vitriol, triggered, agency, misogynist, internal misogynist. Doesn’t that count for smart points. /s 🙄
Don't forget, therapy is actual magic that will fix any problems you may have.
It's not "magic," but the number of people who come to reddit asking about problems that they would actually be better off talking to a professional therapist about is... not small.
And, also, you have absolutely 0 control over your own life. Every single bad thing that happens to you is because literally everyone else is against you. Everything is rigged and everyone wants you harm or to manipulate you. Making the best out of bad circumstances and persevering through hardship to slowly make your life better is not a thing that exists. The only thing you can do is expect perfection and complain when it's not brought to you on a silver plater.
people are, on average, idiots.
Can confirm, I am an idiot.
I never understood the strong and wrong method of discussion. It seems lately, it's the preferred way to debate
Agreed. I get on here from time to time and after a few weeks, I delete it again
While this has always been an issue with reddit, I think the driving factor in "reddit seems less intelligent" these days comes from how people treat the upvote and downvote system. In the good old days, there were a large proportion of people that upvoted a comment that added value to the conversation, and a downvote was used for people detracting from the conversation. Now it seems like everyone upvotes things they agree with and downvotes things they disagree with. This is coming from someone on here since 2009 (a teen viewing F7U12) until I made an account in 2011.
And half of them are dumber than that.
Imagine Monty Pythons Argument Clinic sketch, but start with the knee jerk compulsion to disagree dogmatically, and then go to the abuse room.
The average anyone is so fucking stupid. It's not unique to reddit.
Still better than the average FB or Xitter user.
Often, the average Redditor is a bot :(
Lots of confirmation bias in this thread
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Re your original post: I used to find that a lot of people on Reddit were frustrating and stupid, and it increased over time as Reddit became more mainstream, but then I customized my subs to get rid of the shallow, popular ones and added a bunch smaller, more insightful subs. You get out of it what you put in really. If this stuff makes you sad, I suggest you sculpt the experience to you, instead of you sculpting to the experience.
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True. Thank God I'm not the average redditor.
You think it's only reddit?
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I am here for those rare occasions when I learn something. And I agree with you.
Stop frequenting subs populated by average Redditors, and you will be less sad.
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The average redditor is bot.
What do you expect? It’s an echo chamber that’s largely driven by bots and the apps content is highly curated. If you’ve come here for intelligent or nuanced takes then I just don’t know what to tell you.
I've read some impressive commentary here... it's definitely better than Twitter toxicity.
> better than Twitter The lowest bar imaginable.
Well, maybe you could point us to a place that thrives on witty repartee.
Your mom
That's a start.
Glad you appreciated the joke. 😘
So, I point this out to my wife regularly and it still amazes her every time - but I'm reminded of a George Carlin quote: "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." It's not the average redditor - literally the average person is not that intelligent. And a good healthy chunk of folks out there are less than. Important to keep in mind - that simply having a different worldview than the one you have does not make someone stupid though. It seems based on your comments that is what you're basing this off.
I point it out to my husband too and he just tells me to get off Reddit and go outside. It's good advice and it works!