A sense of community feels wonderful. Belonging to a group of people held together by a common interest provides a happiness like no other, so it makes sense for people to seek it out — which in turn explains why Reddit, a website all about communities, is so popular.
Reddit itself is a community in its own way, however, and its members tend to pick up some habits that seemingly won’t die. Here are 10 things you would do all the time if you decided to join up.
10. Searching for a Subreddit of Your New Favorite Thing
Just bought a new video game and want to see if others love it as much as you? Found a new show and want to voice all your frustrations/praises for hundreds (or just under a hundred) to hear?
Maybe you’re just fond of great owls and want to find others that share your love (r/Superbowl has you covered by the way). Finding a subreddit for your newfound interest is one of the earliest habits you’ll develop as a Redditor and it’ll stick with you virtually forever.
9. Reaffirming Your Tastes
One of the best parts of watching a show or movie, eating new food or buying new clothes is discussing it within your social circle. When you’re a Redditor, Reddit is your social circle and you’ll naturally be drawn to learning the general consensus of what you enjoy. Just how good was Marvel’s latest superhero movie? The selection at GAP is pretty good, right?
The curiosity heightens when it comes to the experiences dear to you. Does that one childhood cartoon you vaguely remember hold up today? That old video game surely got good reviews for all the fun you had playing it. Whatever answer you find, you can bet you’ll be searching for strangers’ validation for a long, long time.
8. Getting Your News from the Comments
The internet allows access to so much information at a moment’s notice, and a person can find the same news from a plethora of different sources. Picking one source you trust just enough and keeping a healthy dose of skepticism is how most people digest the news today. Some people choose Fox, some choose CNN, but Redditors choose the comments in r/news or r/worldnews.
Of course, someone has to actually read the articles and I salute those troopers, but everyone else just scrolls down the thread to see if any experts on the topics (or just people who read the piece) call out any discrepancies in the article. It’s like a natural filter that works 100 percent of the time, most of the time.
7. Upvoting Guilty Pleasures
Reddit hosts all types of people, and that includes the scummy ones. Okay, maybe “scummy” is a bit too strong, but it’s not too far off. Blatant reposts infect almost every community, artwork is often posted without credit and r/OldSchoolCool is basically r/LookAtMyHotGrandparents. However, calling out society as if you aren’t part of it is scummy, too.
All Redditors are guilty of upvoting a lyric chain (Smashmouth’s “All-Star” basically guarantees upvotes) or a reference to a show you watch that contributed absolutely zero merit to the discussion at hand. Personally, I’m always upvoting a picture of Salma Hayek or a good “Archer” reference. I feel a little less guilty each time though, so that’s something. Right?
6. Considering Karma Whoring
Speaking of scummy practices, the longer you spend as a Redditor, the more likely you’ll want some popularity. Chances are you’re not getting any love from Instagram or Twitter, so it’s understandable to aim for gold every once in a while. Still, it takes a lot of luck and dedication.
Which new posts in r/Askreddit do you comment on? Do you give them a detailed answer or go for a clever joke? Maybe subscribe to ProZD or Videogamedunkey on Youtube and try to upload their newest videos as fast as you can. We all thought about it, no point in feeling too bad about it. Redditors are practically the embodiment of shameful behavior.
5. Misuse The Downvote Button
The downvote button supposedly hides comments or posts that don’t contribute anything to the discussion or community, but subs flooded with memes and “Star Wars” references found almost everywhere proves the button doesn’t work as intended. It’s basically a “Disagree” button, and that’s a real shame.
Some opinions should be heard, no matter how controversial. Although, some are pretty stupid and bad and wrong, and that’s the same as not contributing to a discussion, really. Yeah, let’s go with that.
4. Trying to Sway Other’s Opinion
This habit of a Redditor in their element (read: “their favorite community”) is one of the less healthy ones. It is highly unlikely you will change a stranger’s mind over the internet, let alone those of an entire community.
Yet, many of us still try to and will post unpopular opinions that’ll get the same amount of upvotes and comments from the same people. This’ll give you the impression you’re close to changing the mindset of the majority — except you’re not. Like, not even remotely close, pal.
3. Always Checking Reddit
People today always check their phones. They think they’re glued to Instagram or Twitter already and they couldn’t possibly be more obsessed with another site. But they’re wrong — and Redditors know it. Redditors know that Reddit will trap you in a loop of checking it whenever you can.
You’ll check it at work, at school, at home, at weddings, at family reunions, even at funerals. Unless the site goes down: That’s when you become most aware of the loop. You’ll try to check Reddit to see if Reddit is down. If that’s not addiction, I don’t know what is.
2. Procrastinate
The name of the game is “Procrastination” and Redditors are the pros. Redditors could practically provide lessons on how to procrastinate. A Redditor will visit one of their favorite subreddit, browse through the top posts and then go through the new posts. Repeat this process in other personal subreddits before checking the main page.
Scroll through there before hitting some of the main subreddit pages, and then visit the sub they started with and do it all over again. No joke, a video about how to stop procrastinating gets posted every now and then and gets a lot of upvotes. Most of the comments are about how they’ll watch the video some time later and you can be sure they mean it (myself included).
1. Circle-jerk
If Reddit had to change its name to something that described its character the best, it would be called “Circle-jerk.” The term basically refers to a set of opinions that constantly circulates within a community or communities, with a relatively recent example being the “Rick and Morty” circle-jerk.
The popular show has a wide fanbase, some of which is pretty weird. They practically worship the show, and references and praise of the show plagued almost any and every thread on Reddit. That was basically the circle-jerk.
Then the hate for that circle-jerk became so common, it became its own circle-jerk. Soon, it was more common to find a comment making fun of the crazy fanbase than it was to find actual comments from the crazy fanbase. Video game subreddits are common homes to these circles and AskReddit is basically circle-jerk galore.
And there you have it. Ten things you would constantly do as a Redditor. As you can see, you wouldn’t be all that exciting, and you’d have some questionable habits. So, basically, Redditors are just like everybody else. Yeah, let’s go with that.
