But one day scrolling down through my feed I saw a video posted on r\videos about some people breaking into a warehouse in Puerto Rico that had supplies for basic needs that dated back to hurricane Maria in 2017 and was kept away when there was a necessity for these items during that time. This, in turn, provoked quite an interesting set of comments on Reddit that I was very surprised to see. There was a lot of misinformation, like this person who had 1.6k upvotes for making up a conspiracy theory that the PR government hid those supplies to make the US look bad and promote the ideals for the independence of the island.
As a Puerto Rican that lived his whole life in the island and knows the structure of the political system, given that the majority of the government is controlled by the statehood party including the director of natural disasters of the island and the mayor of the city where the warehouse was located are of the statehood party as well they do not have any motivation to promote that narrative. And so as any person who tries to contradict a top-rated comment I got down-voted.
This, in turn, made me reflect on all the times I have believed a Reddit comment on the basis that it just looked true. This relates to the article written by Saslow about a page on Facebook that was started with the intention of mocking right-wing politics but their memes came to be thought of as true by several conservatives of the page. You essentially start believing in things since everyone is believing them without fact-checking and this is the sad reality of misinformation we live in today where the truth is harder and harder to find.
I was drawn to your post because I'm a very avid reddit user, too! I don't use the platform as much as I did about a year ago, but there was a period of time where I also heavily relied on it as a source of truth. You make very good points about groupthink and mass downvoting. However, I wonder if there's a way to convey your appreciation for Reddit without also slamming other social media platforms (or, if you're going for a comedic tone, maybe bring it out a little more so it's not as ambiguous).
ReplyDeleteI think the perspectives you provide are very valid and interesting, and I almost wish you would have expanded on them slightly — many readers likely have little to no knowledge about the Puerto Rican political system. I'd suggest being more specific when referring to articles (ie. write out name of the article and the full name of the author the first time they are mentioned) because technically not all readers are in this course. Some of your sentences were a bit hard to follow (mainly the first sentence in the second-to-last paragraph). Additionally, maybe a few screenshots would have helped drive your point home even further (or possibly even linking to the video that you mention). Lastly, not everyone uses Reddit or knows how upvoting/downvoting functions, so maybe more explanation there could help.
Quite interesting blog post. Your hook was definitely engaging and I would suggest adding a /s to make a reference. As someone who spends a quite some time on Reddit, while also using it as my primary social media, the title itself was enough to catch my attention.
ReplyDeleteI would, however, suggest adding evidence to refute possible counter arguments. For instance, mob mentality to upvote top rated comments is prone to happen in big subreddits like r/videos. Moreover, since it's a very general subreddit, people are not likely to possess much knowledge about the situation in Puerto Rico back in 2017. This might entice redditors to upvote "interesting" comments, such as that of the conspiracy theory and join the hype bandwagon.
Also, having spent significant time on Reddit has taught me to always question statements. I would suggest adding a picture of your comment being downvoted, as well as the top comment you were replying to. Not only does this add evidence to support your claim, but it also portrays a connection on a more personal level.
Sadly enough, with Reddit's growing popularity, the site's comment section is closely resembling the likes of Facebook and Twitter, at least for the big subreddits like r/videos and r/askreddit. It truly is a bit disappointing and I'm glad you're raising awareness on it.
Hi Jusa,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post and as a reddit user myself I 100% agree with your point. Reddit has somewhat of a hive mind mentality where only certain viewpoints and events are up-voted. This results in these posts/comments being seen by more people which just in turns makes them up-vote as well. Reddit is such a great place for information but has its downsides. If you see a comment or post with thousands of up-votes stating some fact you will most likely believe in it. After all if all there other people agreed with it then it is most likely true.
Reddit users seem to think they are above all the other social media site for information gathering but in reality they have the same flaws as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.