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I am surprised no one mentioned Reddit. Reddit really helped me gain perspective. For one thing, it made me realize how similar people all over the world are.

by cJ0th 9y ago

I am surprised no one mentioned Reddit. Reddit really helped me gain perspective. For one thing, it made me realize how similar people all over the world are. No matter how specific a post is, chances are really high that someone else will chime in and echo the feeling/experience that has been expressed. In short, the positive message is: You're not alone! For another thing, it is (despite the horrible search function) relatively easy to discover communities that discuss the same topics from different angles. For instance, when it comes to international news that affect country A and B you can read the comments in r/a and /b and thus gain a deeper understanding of the issue.

dualogy 9y ago
> For one thing, it made me realize how similar people all over the world are. For me, it made me realize how similar redditors all over the world are.. =)
- H4CK3RM4N 9y ago
  4chan(/pol/ and /int/ in particular) is what did it for me. An Indian complaining about Pakistanis looks an awful lot like a German complaining about the French, or an Aussie complaining about Kiwis.
  - perilunar 9y ago
    I don't know about that. There's a long history of bloodshed between India and Pakistan, and between Germany and France. Australia and New Zealand have always been close allies. We only complain about each other in jest.
    - kerbalspacepro 9y ago
      I think that's the point. If two allies complaining about each other in jest is indistinguishable from two enemies complaining about each other in sincerity, then what's do the enemies complaining about each other really mean?
- kbody 9y ago
  True, in a sense some subreddits are echo-chambers.
- mrweasel 9y ago
  The issues that seems to trouble the majority of users on Reddit, or at least the more vocal users, seems pretty fare removed from the average persons life. You sort of end up with the impression that the average users for the "mainstream" subreddits are pot smoking, male-to-female transgendered, bacon-eating vegans, 14 year old hippies with college degrees. If anything I believe that Reddit have shown me that people across the world are much more diverse than I would have imagined. Similar in many many ways, but with vastly different priorities and problems. In the more niche subreddits people communicate extremely well, despite their differences, simply because they share a common interest.
erikb 9y ago
Yes, true. Most people who started to use reddit have gained massive amounts from knowledge from it. But reddit itself is not content. Content is what people create in the subreddits. Saying "reddit changed my life" is the same as "email changed my life", no specific enough.
braveo 9y ago
reddit is what convinced me that on the whole people are stupid, unfair, and not really worth conversing with. I used to try and give people's thoughts and opinions weight, but at some point I just couldn't muster up the mental energy anymore.
nonamechicken 9y ago
Reddit impacted my life negatively and is a site I would never recommend to anybody in my life. It taught me that a lot of Americans hate Indians, and has probably forever changed my feelings to them negatively. It is the only addiction I have that I am trying to get away from, but always find myself going back. And the weird thing is, on some days, I specifically go look for the bad news.
- JohnJamesRambo 9y ago
  As an American I have to say I don't know any Americans that hate Indians. So please don't think that because you have met some portion on Reddit that feel that way!
  - codesocomplete 9y ago
    As an Indian living in the US, I don't know any either. However, there are only a limited number of people I know and I do go to Reddit to gain perspective on a number of things - and advice/opinions there have helped me in real life. So I often tend to trust (well voted) opinions there. Reddit hatred towards India combined with the much revered NYTimes also often showing signs of it has started to make me believe that there is more anti-India sentiment lurking in America than meets the eye
    - cylinder 9y ago
      The internet has led me to believe that Indians are extremely sensitive and insecure about their reception and reputation in other countries. There are 1 billion+ Indians and 330m+ Americans. I'm sure some hate each other and some love each other. If you think America generally as a whole dislikes Indians, perhaps you can explain why they have the highest average incomes of any ethnic group in the US, own most of the hotels, and lead several Fortune500 companies. This is probably the third thread I've randomly come across in two days where Indians are whining about their supposed reputations abroad. Keep it up and it'll become true!
      - 9y ago
eksemplar 9y ago
Other than my country's subreddit I can't think of anything reddit has contributed to my life, for the past two years. I go there daily, but I almost never find anything interesting I haven't first seen elsewhere. It's a neat place to waste time, but even on small obscure subreddit, the content just isn't there anymore. I guess you could say it changed a lot of lives, by becoming "the front page of the internet", but wasn't it negatively? I mean, the sense of community there used to be on sub-cultural forums and irc is lost on Reddit, and anything intelligent drowns in the vast ocean of mediocreness.
- hashhar 9y ago
  Only if you don't login and follow the niches that interest you and things that you don't know about. A very good example for me was /r/WritingPrompts because after I wrote a long comment somebody directed me to it and I managed to start writing again. /r/StopDrinking also helped me help my friend regain control of his life. /r/fitness helped me regain my health. Then there's /r/randomkindness, /r/bestof, /r/askreddit and /r/cscareerquestions.
  - eksemplar 9y ago
    I do log in, follow my interests and I think the country subreddit thing is the only auto/standard one I still follow. The content and the people just aren't there for me. But I'm happy that it's working for you.
SL61 9y ago
Reddit was indispensable for me during my teenage years. I was a lonely, isolated homeschooled kid and my parents didn't let me do much. With Reddit, I was exposed to different viewpoints, all sorts of things I would never hear about from my parents (I vividly remember discovering what BDSM is from an AskReddit thread), frank discussions on depression and anxiety, and in general a nice community to take the edge off my isolation. I also found friends there, a couple of whom I'm still really close to. Given how Reddit has changed over the years, I wonder if I'd have that same experience if I were several years younger, just discovering the site today.
et-al 9y ago
I think most Kottke readers are 30+ years old, and formative web sites are those you've frequented when you were younger. So Reddit for most Kottke users came way after MetaFilter or Dreamless.
- webnrrd2k 9y ago
  Please don't forget robotwisdom. It was one of the more important sites for me, right up there with Slashdot. The fact that robotwisdom was run by a semi-homeless guy was a big eye-opener and made it clear that people of great intelligence can have real mental/emotional problems.
  - et-al 9y ago
    Surprisingly, I never heard of robotwisdom until now. Thanks webnrrd2k!

by cJ0th 9y ago

dualogy 9y ago

> For one thing, it made me realize how similar people all over the world are. For me, it made me realize how similar redditors all over the world are.. =)

H4CK3RM4N 9y ago
4chan(/pol/ and /int/ in particular) is what did it for me. An Indian complaining about Pakistanis looks an awful lot like a German complaining about the French, or an Aussie complaining about Kiwis.
- perilunar 9y ago
  I don't know about that. There's a long history of bloodshed between India and Pakistan, and between Germany and France. Australia and New Zealand have always been close allies. We only complain about each other in jest.
  - kerbalspacepro 9y ago
    I think that's the point. If two allies complaining about each other in jest is indistinguishable from two enemies complaining about each other in sincerity, then what's do the enemies complaining about each other really mean?
kbody 9y ago
True, in a sense some subreddits are echo-chambers.
mrweasel 9y ago
The issues that seems to trouble the majority of users on Reddit, or at least the more vocal users, seems pretty fare removed from the average persons life. You sort of end up with the impression that the average users for the "mainstream" subreddits are pot smoking, male-to-female transgendered, bacon-eating vegans, 14 year old hippies with college degrees. If anything I believe that Reddit have shown me that people across the world are much more diverse than I would have imagined. Similar in many many ways, but with vastly different priorities and problems. In the more niche subreddits people communicate extremely well, despite their differences, simply because they share a common interest.

erikb 9y ago

Yes, true. Most people who started to use reddit have gained massive amounts from knowledge from it. But reddit itself is not content. Content is what people create in the subreddits. Saying "reddit changed my life" is the same as "email changed my life", no specific enough.

braveo 9y ago

reddit is what convinced me that on the whole people are stupid, unfair, and not really worth conversing with. I used to try and give people's thoughts and opinions weight, but at some point I just couldn't muster up the mental energy anymore.

nonamechicken 9y ago

Reddit impacted my life negatively and is a site I would never recommend to anybody in my life. It taught me that a lot of Americans hate Indians, and has probably forever changed my feelings to them negatively. It is the only addiction I have that I am trying to get away from, but always find myself going back. And the weird thing is, on some days, I specifically go look for the bad news.

JohnJamesRambo 9y ago
As an American I have to say I don't know any Americans that hate Indians. So please don't think that because you have met some portion on Reddit that feel that way!
- codesocomplete 9y ago
  As an Indian living in the US, I don't know any either. However, there are only a limited number of people I know and I do go to Reddit to gain perspective on a number of things - and advice/opinions there have helped me in real life. So I often tend to trust (well voted) opinions there. Reddit hatred towards India combined with the much revered NYTimes also often showing signs of it has started to make me believe that there is more anti-India sentiment lurking in America than meets the eye
  - cylinder 9y ago
    The internet has led me to believe that Indians are extremely sensitive and insecure about their reception and reputation in other countries. There are 1 billion+ Indians and 330m+ Americans. I'm sure some hate each other and some love each other. If you think America generally as a whole dislikes Indians, perhaps you can explain why they have the highest average incomes of any ethnic group in the US, own most of the hotels, and lead several Fortune500 companies. This is probably the third thread I've randomly come across in two days where Indians are whining about their supposed reputations abroad. Keep it up and it'll become true!
    - 9y ago

eksemplar 9y ago

Other than my country's subreddit I can't think of anything reddit has contributed to my life, for the past two years. I go there daily, but I almost never find anything interesting I haven't first seen elsewhere. It's a neat place to waste time, but even on small obscure subreddit, the content just isn't there anymore. I guess you could say it changed a lot of lives, by becoming "the front page of the internet", but wasn't it negatively? I mean, the sense of community there used to be on sub-cultural forums and irc is lost on Reddit, and anything intelligent drowns in the vast ocean of mediocreness.

hashhar 9y ago
Only if you don't login and follow the niches that interest you and things that you don't know about. A very good example for me was /r/WritingPrompts because after I wrote a long comment somebody directed me to it and I managed to start writing again. /r/StopDrinking also helped me help my friend regain control of his life. /r/fitness helped me regain my health. Then there's /r/randomkindness, /r/bestof, /r/askreddit and /r/cscareerquestions.
- eksemplar 9y ago
  I do log in, follow my interests and I think the country subreddit thing is the only auto/standard one I still follow. The content and the people just aren't there for me. But I'm happy that it's working for you.

SL61 9y ago

Reddit was indispensable for me during my teenage years. I was a lonely, isolated homeschooled kid and my parents didn't let me do much. With Reddit, I was exposed to different viewpoints, all sorts of things I would never hear about from my parents (I vividly remember discovering what BDSM is from an AskReddit thread), frank discussions on depression and anxiety, and in general a nice community to take the edge off my isolation. I also found friends there, a couple of whom I'm still really close to. Given how Reddit has changed over the years, I wonder if I'd have that same experience if I were several years younger, just discovering the site today.

et-al 9y ago

I think most Kottke readers are 30+ years old, and formative web sites are those you've frequented when you were younger. So Reddit for most Kottke users came way after MetaFilter or Dreamless.

webnrrd2k 9y ago
Please don't forget robotwisdom. It was one of the more important sites for me, right up there with Slashdot. The fact that robotwisdom was run by a semi-homeless guy was a big eye-opener and made it clear that people of great intelligence can have real mental/emotional problems.
- et-al 9y ago
  Surprisingly, I never heard of robotwisdom until now. Thanks webnrrd2k!