At this point, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn are pretty common brands that a majority of people know. However, there’s one social media website, Reddit, that not many are knowledgable about. It’s an odd duck, that’s for sure. However, many people prefer Reddit’s format than others. So, what makes Reddit so different than the other social media giants? If you haven’t heard of the website, you’re in for a treat.
When it comes to Reddit—whose name comes from “I Read It”—social networking is a little different. It has a more traditional forum format, which encourages users to reach out to strangers, as opposed to finding old high-school buddies or coworkers. People go by user names and aren’t really encouraged to use personal information. All user names have “u/“ in front of it. For example, u/screenname.
People use Reddit to find news stories on specific topics or to discuss very specific things. It’s the king of the niche audience, so you can subscribe to sub-communities, or “subreddits”, based around a subject you’re interested in. All subreddits start with “r/“, so an example would be r/politics or r/funny. People can subscribe to many subreddits so their “front page” is filled with information relevant to them.
A big way that Reddit differs from other websites is the order in which posts become visible. Each post and comment is equipped with up and down arrows so users can up-vote or down-vote content. The concept behind the thumbs-down button everybody always wanted on Facebook is alive and well on Reddit. When you first log onto Reddit, you won’t find the most recent posts, you’ll find the most popular. This makes fresh content to be visible slower than speedy Twitter feeds. Users can always click the “new” tab on any subreddit to see content that is being posted that very second. However, you might have to muddle through some junk.
Reddit is starting to turn some heads. At first, it was more underground, yet now, it’s taking traction and celebrities are doing a special type of Q&A session with their audience called AMAs (Ask Me Anything). It’s a great way for business owners and celebrities to reach out to their audience in a unique way. Even President Obama did an AMA, which received approximately 12 thousand up-votes.
While you can have a friend list, it isn’t really the place for socializing with people you know in real life. However, it is a great place to reach out to a community of like-minded individuals and discus relevant topics. You might even find a celebrity or two in the comment sections.
What do you think of Reddit? Let us hear your thoughts!
