For this week, I created an account for a social media platform I had never seriously used before: Reddit. I say never seriously used because I have, from time to time, gone on Reddit to have some of my oddly specific questions answered. Most of the time, my questions deal with how to find/do something in a video game, tips for Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, or help with fixing something of mine that isn't quite working. As I said, a lot of it is oddly specific things within those categories of questions. And, when I looked up all those questions over the years, I never actually had a Reddit account. I never upvoted a single post, commented something like "thanks for the help," or added to the discussion with my own findings. I just saw the specific post that answered my question and closed the tab when I got what I wanted. So, for this past week, I have tried to do all of those things I had never done before.
Here on the left is the account I made (I won't show my account name but I made it anonymous). I joined a few communities that I was interested in to see what it was like to actually be a part of a subreddit. Overall, I've got to say it was a pretty good experience. Reddit's format (on mobile) is similar to Instagram in a lot of ways so it was easy for me to get the hang of it as I am very familiar with Instagram. It mostly felt like Instagram but with a heavier emphasis on discussion and the ability to not have everything be image/video-based. Honestly, it was about what I expected going into this. I had a few interactions here and there within the communities but by far the best one I had was when I joined a community for a company that I had applied to for an internship this upcoming summer. At the time I am writing this, I am still waiting to hear back from said company so I wanted to see if other intern applicants were also waiting like me. And, with some searching, I was able to find a Reddit post where a lot of the applicants were going through the same wait like me! They had made a discord server with all of the other intern applicants to keep each other up to date with application information and if anyone had heard back yet. So, wanting to know more about what was going on, I replied to the post, got an invite to the server, and have learned a lot about what's going on with the application process at the company (based on what I found out from them, it seems I am still in the running for now!). Despite the fact I had a pretty good experience in this short time span, I don't see myself using Reddit for more than anything except answering questions, or seeing what fellow San Diego Padres fans have to say about recent news regarding the team. I have heard about the weird/negative sides of Reddit but since I am taking a very "casual" approach to this social media platform, I don't see myself ever venturing into those areas of the site. With that said, my personal experience with Reddit has been fairly positive and I'll more frequently use it to answer my very oddly specific questions, but not much more besides that.
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