In our current decade, news travels fast. So fast, in fact, that it is nearly impossible to remain updated on all current events. So, how does one separate the tasteful news from the bland? Through public opinion and, apparently, the use of a nifty tool called Reddit. But news is only a small part of what Reddit has become. Launched in 2005 as an entertainment and social networking service, Reddit now has over six billion page views and 174 million unique visitors per month.
Reddit is most appealing to males aged 18-29, who account for over 15 percent of the site’s demographics. Senior Aric Liu think that Reddit helps to compile groups a plethora of information into a single digestible package.
“There’s a sub-Reddit category for almost everything,” Liu said. “It’s just interesting how people from all over the world submit posts about things you may have never heard of. I get most of my current events from Reddit posts.”
Liu, however, doesn’t think that Reddit should be considered a replacement for actual news sources.
“No matter how you look at it, it’s still just a social media site, kind of. A lot of posts link to actual news articles anyways, so the news sources are still important,” Liu said.
Senior Eric Xu browses Reddit everyday, sometimes for hours at a time, and considers himself a “Reddit expert.” He says that Reddit serves as a filter for information and may only offer a narrow perspective.
“The community at Reddit has a set of preferences and opinions. If you have similar views, then you’re more likely to enjoy the content that is enjoyed by everyone else,” Xu said. “For the sake of time or just laziness, a lot of people just look at the headlines and the top comment, neglecting the article altogether.”
By neglecting to read the actual article and just going off the headline and top comment, users may frequently create biased or incomplete opinions about the subject.
This may also cause the monochromatic set of opinions that show up on Reddit mentioned by Xu.
English teacher David Clarke warns that Reddit could harbor “self-replicated” opinions.
“It’s difficult to get a variety of perspectives,” Clarke said. “In our current age, it’s not access to news we need, but filters. We have to be careful about using a filter like Reddit as a primary source of news, or they could end up clouding our judgement and opinions.”
Others, however, compare Reddit to social media.
“A lot of people are distracted by [Reddit],” junior Heidi Wei said. “I don’t think it can serve as a news source, but so many people use it that it has made me curious. Maybe that’s why some people think it’s a credible source, because so many people use it as one.”
