Platforms like Reddit give us the means to rebuild those ties and encourage us to forge new ones. In many ways, the internet has been our saviour. Many communities have been put on a temporary hiatus, abruptly halted at the first signs of danger last March, severing those connections in the process. Indeed, in their own words Reddit says: “ It is home to thousands of communities, endless conversation, and authentic human connection.”Īt the moment, it’s difficult to find or truly experience human connection, when there’s two meters between us, masks covering our mouths and noses, and the overriding fear of spreading or contracting the virus. Reddit’s beauty lies in its ability to birth community after community, with each one expanding to encompass a topic which has previously been untouched.
#WHAT ARE SITES LIKE REDDIT CALLED HOW TO#
Whether you are part of a subreddit that discusses how to run a business, or one that finds collective enjoyment in mocking the blunder years of others, each thread allows for a group of strangers to come together over a shared interest through their computer, tablet, or phone screen. The entire ordeal opened my eyes up to the reasons why the app, in spite of all the humor and utter nonsense which circulates on some of its forums, has become one of the most visited and used sites in the world. While this may be a rare example of Reddit’s niche communities surfacing in the news, it was indicative of what power and influence social media platforms can have. I was privy to a day by day commentary from my boyfriend on this Reddit fueled controversy, as well as the intense investigation into the practices of stock trading sites like Robinhood and the leading multi-billion hedge funds that followed it. This was to the great detriment of several hedge funds which had anticipated that the market price of GameStop stock would decline. The forum urged people to buy and hold GameStop shares, which rose from less than $20 to a high of $492 on January 28. Of course, the app has recently been brought into the mainstream as a result of the GameStop controversy, which emerged this January after the subreddit WallStreetBets, which currently has 4.7 million members, made headlines.
In one incredible example that my boyfriend shared, this advice can even be lifesaving. I’ve also been told stories of members who collaborate to help one another and offer pieces of advice. My personal favorite is one subreddit dedicated solely to images of birds with arms. I’ve been shown posts that range from the more serious and controversial, such as the heavily followed politics subreddit, to the hilariously nonsensical. For my boyfriend and other users, this is what maintains Reddit’s appeal.
Notably, all of Reddit is available without the pretension of other sites, with which I was much more familiar. It offered its members, in just one site, a space for lively discussion to take place, ingenious memes to be shared, and subcommunities based on a common interest to join. Immediately, I noticed that the app stood apart from others. My boyfriend has quickly introduced me to the basic workings of this global site, but I’m nowhere near as up to speed as he is with its intricate inner workings, tight-knit virtual communities, diverse multitude of users, and nuanced selection of forums which I later discovered are called “subreddits.” I was part of the minority-t here are more than 430 million monthly active Reddit users worldwide, making it the sixth most used social networking mobile app in the United States. The social news aggregator (a mixture of a discussion platform and link distributor) was something that I was aware of but had never quite understood. Before I met my boyfriend last year, I had close to no knowledge of Reddit.
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