Morality in Question
Reddit is the final frontier of Internet forum purity. As the last bastion of user-driven, open-comment debate, it’s become the go-to for unbiased opinions and solicited advice through pages like r/AITA, r/askreddit, r/pettyrevenge, and many other niche pages. Posters seek to rationalize their life choices by sharing their experience online, beseeching a stranger’s validation (or condemnation) in the hopes of self-justification. Because of its user-driven purity, Redditors have no reason to fake a guise of prowess because their “two-cents” is crowdsourced by upvotes and downvotes of the community. In other words, if your comments are unpopular, they’re dismissed, leaving popular opinions in the forefront. u/Princess_Puneta, a Redditor and advocate online, says, “Reddit is a place where I can get reliable information quickly. News, current events, specialty subjects. Comments are filtered by popularity, so garbage opinions drown in downvotes.”
The catharsis of divulging your quandaries online can be the therapy some people need to formulate their stance on the matter, using Redditors as the judge, jury, and executioner to facilitate life’s toughest decisions. Ashish Dangol, a culture expert with Medium, said, “[Reddit is] unlike other social media platforms, where you are supposed to showcase a perfect life through pictures and people are bound to judge you in any possible way.” Unlike other platforms, Reddit openly announces their judgement and that’s half the allure. There’s even a subreddit called r/RoastMe, where users post a selfie just to get openly criticized and burned by strangers. For folks who are tired of traditional online personas that are carefully crafted and perfectly curated, this is the kind of ruthless opinion we’re looking for online.
Via u/roasted.memes_ via u/frannybones
Cutthroat as it may seem, this honesty is what many users seek. A judgement-free zone has ironically become the ultimate online courtroom, and because of its unique framework, Reddit has slowly morphed into the moral compass for ethical alignment in modern society. Brutal honesty is the only vessel that brings about the true answers to ethical conundrums.
A Stranger Exchange
Tackling life’s worries and woes without the aid of an outside opinion is not only daunting, but practically debilitating because, as socialized humans, we constantly seek the affirmation of others around us. However, reality can sometimes be embarrassing or shameful, making us shy away from spilling our guts to someone we know for fear of an everlasting taint on our reputation. “Reddit might be a great option to vent your emotions while staying anonymous,” Dangol mentions. “[And it’s] slowly becoming one of the most famous social media platforms among teens and young adults.” On Reddit, your reputation is only tied to your username, which can easily be changed or thrown away entirely.
Humans prefer to springboard life’s most complex queries off of an impartial person—like a stranger, perhaps—hiding behind the safety of anonymity. Seeking the same discussive catharsis as a chat with a friend, we can flush out an unabated assessment of our lives without all of the pesky love, history, and friendship. With the rise of the Internet and the creation of online forums, it’s become far simpler to fashion and access community feedback modules that mimic our teenage-era morality compass.
Dangol continues, “Bad experiences, big or small, can be shared easily on Reddit. In return, you get motivating comments and great advice. Due to the users being anonymous, any question can be asked, even those that might be taboo in society, embarrassing, or straight-up stupid.” Like voyeurs looking in on a stranger’s real-life playwright, Redditor audiences provide a unique perspective to any problem dishing out judgement and criticism like it’s their day job. Although another person’s opinion is always subjective, the “peanut gallery” aspect on Reddit is magnetic, making users crave the scrutiny of randos. As we share our deepest, darkest thoughts, we theoretically test the waters of ethics and morality, receiving live reviews from outsiders from all walks of life.
The Search for Truth
Funnily enough, the more we seek validation from any source, the more likely we’ll find exactly what we’re looking for. If you’re searching for another person who believes your latest conspiracy theory or if you want to seem like the victim in your family’s inheritance battle, the Reddit forums you subconsciously choose will each have a drastically different perspective.
For example, r/MomsofReddit is a sanctimonious parenting advice page, whereas r/Mommit is a more niche community where moms rant about the difficulties of motherhood, and contrastingly, there’s r/childfree, a community of adults who will never have children. If you’re a mom whose toddler is acting downright diabolical, your mom-vice post on r/MomsofReddit, r/Mommit, and r/childfree will inevitably get three wildly different responses. Considering the source of your queries is an important way that we subconsciously tailor the comment section’s assessment of our lives. Another Redditor, u/rhapsodiangreen, argues, “Without proper guardrails, groups of people eventually start clamoring for power and rightness.” But just like your teenage-self’s friend-focused counseling, every tea-spilling session should be taken with a grain of salt. Outright confessions and venting about life’s troubles can let off steam, purging the mind of tangled, overthought issues where the answer was clear all along.
u/rhapsodiangreen continues, “I agree that with certain topics and the right communities/good mods, Reddit can be less noisy than the other options [online]. It's good for low-hanging fruit and quick temperature checks.” Truthfully, that’s exactly what most people need in the first place—a safe place to vent about life’s frustrations so that we may formulate our own opinion about a morally complex scenario.
Chasing Realness
It may seem lonesome that people are seeking the advice of strangers online, but with the unskewed, unaltered, and unabridged commentary rolling in on Reddit, it’s tough to dispute the reasoning. With thousands of subreddits and communities to vent to, the therapeutic nature of the Internet’s most authentic social media page is undeniable. Just like any hot gossip session with a friend, talking through an issue and getting your thoughts spoken (either out loud or via typed text) is enough to clarify our most muddled messes. Reddit has proven itself—despite its randomness, biases, opinionated messages, and echo chamber tendencies—simply because authenticity is baked into its user-driven nature.
There’s a reason we all type ‘Reddit’ after a query in the Google Search bar whenever we’re doing some research. We know that through Reddit, we sidestep the BS and go straight to a crowdsourced opinion or, if we’re lucky, a first-hand experience with a clear solution. With the complexities of adult problems and worldly issues, it’s comforting when we can retrace the steps of some kind stranger who just might have the answer we’re looking for, scouring the pages of an online community practically as old as the Internet itself.
Somewhere out there in the world, someone else has lived through the exact same problem as you, posting it on Reddit and providing a clearly annotated cheat sheet for the open-book test of life.