Monday, March 26, 2012

Why You Should Quit Reddit (and other internet forums)

Popular social news website Reddit.com is a hub for links, information, and discussion that determines millions of people's daily experience of the internet. I began using Reddit in 2007 after being introduced to it by a friend. I was going through a particularly dependent phase of my life in which I was masking my biggest problems with all manner of distractions - marijuana and the internet being the two most prominent. It's no surprise, then, that I took to Reddit more or less instantaneously.

I was drawn in by Reddit's interesting links, sensational political messages, and instant response discussions. As the site evolved and became more sophisticated, subreddits devoted to increasingly specific topics took shape. It became easier to congregrate with (kind of) like-minded people. It wasn't necessarity the quality of the content that kept me engaged and coming back as much as the rapid-fire discussion and the highly effective boredom killing and procrastination that Reddit's constant link clicking provided.

I never read anything on Reddit that had a lasting impact on my life (except that one comment in that one thread that told me to push the tab of my pants zipper down to keep them from unzipping. That saved me from throuwing out an 80 dollar pair of jeans). There were many instances of 'huh, that's interesting', and 'how could he say that!', but overall, the whole experience felt very empty and lacking.

The much more tangible consequences of my frequent use of Reddit led to a cyclical feeling of guilt whenever I logged on. I would think 'yep, I'm destroying my attention span right now' because of the instantly gratifying nature of the site , or 'yep, I could be actually doing something productive right now'. Incessant link-clicking also destroyed my attention span, and I found myself unable to complete simple tasks away from my computer (picture yourself pacing around your room with one sock on, throwing things around trying to uncover the pen or other stupid object that you absent-mindedly misplaced).

I was miraculously able to break this cycle for a while by forcing myself to get busy with real-world pursuits, but returned to Reddit after realizing that Reddit could be a potentially valuable tool to promote myself. After I became more serious about my music, I began posing my work on Reddit's r/WeAreTheMusicMakers and r/ThisIsOurMusic subreddits. I gained a few fans that way, but I eventually realized that it was an inferior method of promoting my music in the larger picture. Additionally, most of the other music that users submitted was not nearly as good as what I could see by simply going out to one of my favorite neighborhood venues on any night of the week. There, I get the added benefit of networking with real, active local musicians.

People's tastes on the music forums also ran in a singular, homogenized (and questionable, to someone who has spent several years entrenched in the East Coast indie rock business) direction. This was symptomatic of a larger problem that spanned the entire site, something that 'Redditors' (that's what active users of the site call themselves. I was never comfortable using that word even though I probably fit that description) call the 'hive mind'.

Among the many problems with the Reddit hive mind is the predominant site-wide mentality that it cultivates. Reddit is primarily populated by introverted, American and European male teenagers and college students. This fosters a sitewide culture that is predominantly politically left-leaning, atheist, and misogynist. Being an apolitical spiritual female, this culture didn't really jive with me. Users will fervently downvote views that deviate from the accepted views of the predominant established culture.

Furthermore, Reddit users invest an unhealhty amount of their identities in simply being users of the site. Wow, you're a lonely comp-sci major who spends his free time browsing a large internet forum and reading memes? You are SO COOL! Tell me all about yourself! I think this ties into a larger social problem of deriving our identities by what we consume instead of what we produce, but that's a topic for another day.

I finally left Reddit after four and a half years of on-and-off use. I've deleted all of my accounts and blocked the website from my browser. I'm a few months in, and I have to say that it really has made an enormous difference in my attention span, productivity, and outlook on life. I find myself spending less time on the internet overall - in other words, quitting Reddit helped me to drop the other pointless things I was doing on the internet. I will always regret wasting countless thousands of hours on Reddit that I could have put into more meaningful activities that actually brought me closer to my dreams and goals.

In the first week, I found myself wanting to go onto an internet forum and talk about how I had just quit Reddit. Aside from realizing that doing so would only propagate my problem elsewhere, those moments gave me a new insight into the nature of my habit and what exactly it was that drew me into Reddit and internet forums in general. Participating in a forum made me feel like I had someone to talk to any time. I realized that this was a poor substitute for actually going out into the real world and talking to people face-to-face. Further, freeing up the time I spent on Reddit could help me actually work toward the life I talked about having on Reddit.

A few months into being free from Reddit and other internet forums, I've noticed many positive changes. My overall mood and outlook on life is better (largely because I am not paying any attention to news or politics). My attention span is much improved. I no longer drop simple tasks in the middle of doing them. It is much harder to distract me. My existing friendships have improved. I go out more, and as a result have been meeting more people, including several more-than-friends. I am much more productive and my time management has improved.

It's truly mind-blowing how many means and ways there are for people to waste their time and energy with technology. In my mind, Reddit and internet forums are just a notch above TV and video games in terms of how much value they provide to the user (that is, not a lot at all). If you are really serious about getting productive, cut these things out of your life.

19 comments:

  1. This was well-written and insightful. Thank you.

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  2. I also found this article insightful. Thank you for the perspective.

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  3. Thanks, needed this.

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  4. This was awesome. This may be a dumb question but how exactly did you block reddit on your computer?

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  5. regSphere, while I realize the irony of linking to reddit, here is a post explaining how to do it.

    http://www.reddit.com/r/howtoquitreddit/comments/yqijm/how_to_edit_your_hosts_file_in_windows_to_block_a/

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. I've found a pretty easy to use add on for firefox called blocksite:

    https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/downloads/latest/3145/addon-3145-latest.xpi?src=dp-btn-primary

    You can put in a whole slew of different websites (cracked, youtube, forums.steampowered.com) and then have someone you know put in a master password, and voila. Everything you wanted is blocked and you can't disable it either without that password save uninstalling everything or using a new browser.

    But even with someone like myself who has little to no self control, I haven't been tempted to go to those extremes as I liken it to turning tricks for your crack addiction, and I still have enough self esteem to not go down that road.

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  8. I've been on Reddit for 5 years, and have acquired so much karma I'm actually in the top 1% of all users (I have access to r/top).

    And I plan to totally delete my account on Dec. 31, 2014.

    It's just a stupid site that I go back to for some sort of weird comfort food/faux discussion/lets-me-be-snarky effect. I don't enjoy using it - it's just...there.

    And I'm just tired of it. It literally adds no value to my day to day life whatsoever.

    I also do not like the average user on Reddit anymore. I have almost nothing in common with them, like you explained.

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  9. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  10. Reddit can negatively affect you in the long run. It's sad to see people(especially teenagers) join the site and not know what to expect.

    To the author:

    You're really spot on when you mention the hive mind on that site. Ugh! I'd hate to be associated with these people! Granted, there are a lot of decent people on Reddit, but there's a reason why the site gets such a bad rep.

    To the readers:

    If you're reading this and you're wondering if you should delete your account, here's my advice: go for it! Really, what do you have to lose? Try focusing on other areas in your life... that's what I plan on doing.

    I spent almost two years on this site and after some careful thinking I've decided it's best for me to quit Reddit and spend less time on the internet. You should consider doing the same. Good luck!

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  12. I got sucked into reddit in 2011 and I was never able to stop. I recently installed blockers on my computer that block me from getting on reddit, and I started getting very restless, sad, and lonely. I realized that I used reddit as a huge distraction in my life. While there are a lot of resources on there, so much of it is just junk for the brain to eat, and so many toxic personalities along with lots of negative content.

    I'm finally realizing how lonely I am. How I been using the internet and discussion forums/game lobbies/chats/etc as a fake form of socializing. It's been extremely hard. Honestly it's been harder than quitting other addictions I have, but I feel like my life will be better without reddit.

    Often time I think about what my life would have been like these last 6 years had I never fallen into the trap of weed-reddit-games-porn-repeat. It's have a huge impact on my life, my outlook on the world, and the way I socialize with people.

    I really want to somehow quit reddit for good. The only thing that really keeps me coming back is doing research and getting information on random things like Computers, Music Production, Software, History, and other random recommendations.

    Wish everyone trying to quit, or spend less time on reddit the best of luck!

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  13. It proved to be Very helpful to me and I am sure to all the commentators here! social network site

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  14. I have trying to cut back the time that I spent on Reddit there is just too much negativity on there plain and simple. Every time I made a point or disagreed with the majority they would down vote like there's no tomorrow and they love to argue over anything. I have started realizing how much on a negative impact Reddit is having on my life and am now trying to eliminate the time I spend on there to only so much time a day. Thanks for this article iI really needed to hear this.

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  15. Great things you’ve always shared with us. Just keep writing this kind of posts.The time which was wasted in traveling for tuition now it can be used for studies.Thanks buy upvotes reddit,

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  16. Even though this was written 7 years ago, it's still a very much up-to-date issue. I'm 24 today, and I've been using a domestic online-forum that's very similar to Reddit since I was about 17, sometimes more sometimes less. But overall I would lie if I said I haven't spent countless hours reading about this and that and written thousands of replies in several different topics and threads. As you say, I can't really say either that anything of it really has had a lasting impact of my life. Maybe I read some good advice now and then, but if I really want good advice and nothing else, Youtube or Quora is a much better alternative. So first reason to quit online-forums is because it's basically just a waste of time you that doesn't really give you that much at the end of the day. And it can sometimes be addictive, so you might quite often spend more time on there than you had thought.

    Second and biggest reason I'm quitting (or at least drastically reducing the time I spent on there) is because roughly 80 % of all the people on there are so fucking negative all the time! It's like an unwritten rule on online-forums that you should be negative, hostile (especially if the topic involves MENA-immigrants) and in general just mean to each other and to the people that the topic is about. Altogether, the environment is just really toxic AF. Life coaches use to say that who you spend time with is who you become (which I think goes both for IRL and online), and I definitely think it's everything but ideal to become the typical Redditor - who is negative, racist, mean, toxic, lazy, a liar, a braggart and pure simple just a miserable loser who needs to put others down in order to get some satisfaction in their lives.

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  18. The funny thing is I don't even use reddit but I find searching things on Google entertaining which is a huge problem. I waste time reading wikipedia. Some information is trivia and not helpful. Nevertheless, I really find this blog post interesting.

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  19. This is amazingly written I just quit reddit today and I feel better now thank you to the author for pushing me to delete it I will never regret it

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