Aidan's Online Oddities: Reddit 101

Have you ever wondered where Facebook gets all those funny posts from? All those memes about Netflix and chill? News about extraordinary people living around the world? Chances are those posts originated from Reddit.

Reddit has long been a part of my everyday living and if you’ve never heard of it I can only describe it as a massive forum of ideas, pictures and individuals from all over the globe contributing to all sorts of different communities through different ‘sub-reddits’. Think of Reddit as an umbrella in which all matter of interesting topics fall under that anyone can contribute to.

Now to the good stuff. No matter what your interests, Reddit probably has it. Game of thrones fan? /r/gameofthrones. Into Hip-Hop music? /r/hiphopheads. Love beautiful pictures taken in all sorts of amazing places? /r/earthporn. This is a speck of what can be found on reddit and the rabbit hole goes so much further than you think. There is literally an entire sub-reddit for “Fiveheads” (foreheads that seem to have a 1-up on everyone else's).

I’ll let you in on some of my favourite sub-reddits.

/r/Melbourne – All things Melbourne. From great restaurant recommendations to news and going-ons within and around the city.

/r/AskReddit – Stories from other redditors on a particular topic. Asking anything from: “What is the best show or series on TV right now?” to: “Did a student ever offer you sex to pass a class? If yes how did you react and what were the further consequences?”. You can get some hilarious and crazy stories with this one.

/r/WTF – This one is self-explanatory. I just watched a leopard jump out of a roof and chase the roof repairman.

But by far the best thing about Reddit is that it is controlled by the users. Users determine if a post is worthy by giving it an ‘upvote’. If they never want that post seen again, they give it a ‘downvote’. The more upvotes, the greater the chance people will see it.

I strongly recommend reddit to anyone and everyone because it literally is for anyone and everyone. Create an account at Reddit.com and if you like it, get the chrome/firefox extension “Reddit Enhancement Suite”. It makes viewing and navigating the website a tonne easier. Thanks for attending Reddit 101. You’re first task is to find a sub-reddit you love. (Spoiler: It’s not that hard).

- Aidan