Blog #9- I had to find out for myself!


I had to find out for myself!

            After reading this book I was completely inspired to get on Reddit! To be able to have a community where you can just see what you are interested in sounded very appealing, so I decided to get on the website and try it out for myself. The book talks about specific communities, or forums, where the user can integrate themselves or be an outsider looking in, and I loved being able to search everything! It really is extremely user friendly and easy to manage. I will also note that it is very easy to stay on the website for a long period of time, as you continue to find more things that interest you. 

            When first going to Reddit I found the website extremely easy to navigate. The topics that are trending were all listed on the home page and I was able to decide what looked most intriguing to me from there. There was anything from Dutch police giving teddy bears to car crash victims, pet pictures and the Russian presidential vote which gave a lot of options on where to start. I decided to start with the Dutch police giving teddy bears out to children. The comments were the best part! Not only were people commenting about how great it must have been to have teddy bears put in the budget, but they mentioned the Russian collusion. I found that most of the forums related back to either Trump, the Russians or some other political event (which was great for me since I am interested in it!). I definitely found that lurking on this website was part of the fun, which completely aligned with that the book was saying.
            Through lurking I found users were extremely open with their opinions. There were not ashamed of what they believed and seemed comfortable enough to express how they felt about topics. Of course, there were some bad comments, but for the most part I found the website to be more positive than negative. In addition, the Admin’s on the pages I was visiting made sure that people continued to talk in a positive way and commented on the more negative writings (see picture for example).

            After talking with a couple friends about their experiences on Reddit, they noted how it is their “go to” forum for the latest Marvel & DC movie updates, trailers and predictions. They explained that it is usually posted on Reddit before any other blogging websites or social media accounts. For example, Avengers fans were able to find the new trailer first thing Friday morning, whereas other social media sites posted it later in the day. This gives the community earlier access to what they are interested in, and most up to date information in their interested topics.
            Overall, I found that Reddit was easy to manage and mostly positive. Users tend to leave more positive comments and I believe that is due to being able to choose what forums you join, compared to a general news feed on other SNS.

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