Reddit used to be a great platform to discuss some topic and get different points of few in a friendly but factual manner. However, slowly it seems like the platform has become a lot more like Facebook, where it’s been invaded by toxic people that are constantly looking for opportunities to shit and hate on others.

The change has been gradual so I really didn’t notice it creep up on me. It’s become super evident now having used Kbin and others for a week or so where people generally seem to be more friendly again and willing to actually discuss things in a usually civil way.

The difference is stark too. Today I replied to a comment saying that I hope things turn out better for them and wound up in a weird comment chain about how people were apparently insensitive for wanting to get a basic haircut that they for some reason couldn’t afford themselves. Meanwhile, Kbin and the Fediverse feels like a refreshing place to actually converse with people once you get past the clunk and figure it out.

I think Reddit may well have reached that main stream social media saturation point where it very objectively now sucks. It happened originally with the internet itself thanks to the rise of the smartphone and this is just another iteration of it. I feel like Spez might as well get that bag at this point because they’ve ruined what used to be the platform people went to for social media without the bullshit, without algorithms to drive “engagement” and to avoid the toxic culture that has prevailed.

Thanks for reading my rant.

  • Tyson712@kbin.social
    3·
    1 year ago

    I think it’s also true to say shitty people have more time on their hands and put more time into things like hating on others because it makes them feel better about themselves and whatever bad situation they’re in that they feel powerless to change. That can cross generations, personality types, political spectrum and anything else.

    Big subreddits haven’t been a good place for conversation for years. Within an hour or less any popular thread has thousands of comments, anything you might write and add to it will be so far down the list, it’ll never be seen. The reddit hive mind is very rigid in it’s thinking and yes can be quite toxic sometimes.

    I’ve only used reddit as a news aggregator and meme scroller for a long time now. Occasionally I’ll pop over to a specific subreddit and maybe get a few words in but it’s rare, I can easily do the same here too so I plan to give the fediverse a solid chance for the next few months.