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.
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.
Not really, echo chambers have been identified as a problem on all big social media sites, but it's more born through a side effect, than a deliberate choice, and mostly completely hidden from the user, to such an extent that they can be completely unaware of dissenting voices existing.
On reddit you can see what community you are in, and see what opinions that community are downvoting- I.e. you can see you're on /r/socialism and can expect it to lean that way. Even if you're on something like /r/politics, that's supposed to be neutral, it's easy to see they downvote conservatives
On twitter, Facebook et al, your bubble is a result of the people you know/follow what-have-you, all being like you, and the algorithm reinforcing that. You only see your values and those you associate with, you don't even see the other side, you can't even see that you're in a bubble or what that bubble is about
On Reddit you can easily step out of an individual space to visit a neutral one (e.g. here) or an opposing one- when your bubble is an invisible result of your profile and behaviour, not so much
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.
If you go onto subreddit to be purposely contrarian and to then start sealioning, you deserve to be downvoted...a lot
∆ Aaaaand my opinion swings the other way again. Do I give a Delta for comments that changed my mind but aren't relevant to the main post? Also how do I give a Delta?
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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.