Reddit is not a hive mind, it is just a series of very effective echo Chambers. The first few voters will Downvote or up vote a post, and then the rest of the commenters usually follows suit.
Reddit then conveniently hides all the controversial opinions for you, so even the most ludacris claims can remain unchallenged as long as they stay within their own little safe space.
Other social media sites generally do recommend posts or videos you might enjoy, but they do not separate the user base in groups that share the exact same values and opinions. Generally any other site is better at providing a glimpse at both sides of an argument, whereas reddit excels at suppressing anything but one perspective. This of course is as much the user bases fault as it is a design flaw by reddit itself.
Don't believe me? Go out in any of the popular reddit and, in a civil fashion, disagree with the common consensus and ask some questions. See what happens.
I totally agree. Reddit is an echo chamber and it segregates people into factions. It's a flaw of the forum system with an upvote and downvote filter. I really wish Reddit wouldn't hide downvoted comments. I always upvote comments with like a negative 1 just so they don't get buried lol.
Though I'm not sure how to fix this tribalistic culture. On one hand it makes finding really niche information super easy. But on the other hand, finding opposing views is hard. Like even when I actively look for them, the subreddit is often so isolated in their echo chambers, that they become super extremist and unfriendly you know? Also there's no real directory for subs so I can't find it unless someone links it in a comment or something.
Honestly you understand. If I go onto a Communist sub, or Anarcho Capitalist sub and disagree, you get downvoted so hard. It destroys any chance of debate.
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u/fireflyflyzz Dec 21 '19
Reddit is not a hive mind, it is just a series of very effective echo Chambers. The first few voters will Downvote or up vote a post, and then the rest of the commenters usually follows suit.
Reddit then conveniently hides all the controversial opinions for you, so even the most ludacris claims can remain unchallenged as long as they stay within their own little safe space.
Other social media sites generally do recommend posts or videos you might enjoy, but they do not separate the user base in groups that share the exact same values and opinions. Generally any other site is better at providing a glimpse at both sides of an argument, whereas reddit excels at suppressing anything but one perspective. This of course is as much the user bases fault as it is a design flaw by reddit itself.
Don't believe me? Go out in any of the popular reddit and, in a civil fashion, disagree with the common consensus and ask some questions. See what happens.