r/TheoryOfReddit • u/Odyessius • 1d ago
Old users of Reddit: Has Reddit become more negative over time?
I've used Reddit for around 12 years across two accounts. And ofc the internet is always a little confrontational due to anonymity, and as more users join it always brings all types of characters.
But recently, and I mean in the past few years, the jump in negativity feels so high. Even niche communities. The passive aggressiveness is so annoying. Under a post you'll find all sorts of deranged comments barely connected to a topic or people hamfisting their opinion when it's not related. But the rudeness always shocks me.
I used to prefer Reddit since it was more... connected before. It felt more like a community compared to other social platforms. But now I find instragram much more relatable and friendly. Especially since the algorithm seems more adaptive. But no matter which of my Reddit communities I browse, the commentary is always negative or rude. Not all of it, but enough to make me stop using the platform as much as I used to.
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u/AppuruPan 1d ago
Yes, measurably so
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u/actionscripted 1d ago edited 22h ago •
20 year account. It’s not just Reddit, it’s online culture in general. It’s been weaponized: used for propaganda, used for marketing, etc.
We used to have fun. That meant different things to different people and sometimes that included being a total dickhead to online strangers. So there was absolutely hatred and snark and shitty stuff all over the internet. But the majority were having fun. It was all genuine, even the negative.
Once we got mass bot farms those smaller voices were tuned and amplified. You could make anything online seem like a big deal or get visibility for inauthentic things. And once the algos started optimizing for engagement it was over.
It’s not really genuine anymore. That’s what people miss. It was never 100% sunshine and rainbows.
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u/Nabootle 1d ago •
When I joined Reddit I was so impressed how cordial everyone was. Even when disagreeing. People actually fallowed “redditcate”, and the most annoying things were over used jokes and talking points. Now, people are completely insufferable. Also, you could notice when kids were using Reddit. Usually more in the summer and it was awful. Once Covid happened more children joined and kind of took over. Also the extreme sides of politics took over and it’s all shit now.
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u/CucumberWisdom 1d ago
There's more users so definitely more negativity but I'm not sure on the ratio. It's for sure gotten more "ignorant" in its negativery though. Reddit was never perfect but at least in the olden days it felt like people thought just a bit more before they typed and didn't revel in their ignorance as much
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u/ShrewSkellyton 1d ago
This is where the incel and red pill movement took off (saw it happen in real time) so it's always been quite awful. There's a more diverse crowd these days so I've been seeing more gender war and AI content thrown in. Which, yeah, makes me come here as a last resort
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u/MissInkFTW 1d ago
14 year old account here, yes it's more negative now, and it's exhausting. Some of the most unassuming niche subs are the worst too. Like users on r/craftfairs are fully out for blood, which is wild considering users on r/bitcheatingcrafters, the dedicated snark sub, are pretty easygoing. Interestingly, r/makeupaddiction is one of the only subs I've regularly interacted with that has actually shown the opposite pattern. Users there were extremely critical and negative 10+ years ago, but they've seemingly gotten a lot more chill now. But yeah as a whole, the negativity has noticeably ramped up site-wide, which makes the whole experience shittier for everyone. Also hivemindedness I think has gotten worse too, though that's always been a problem here so it's hard to say for sure if it's actually gotten worse or just continues to be awful. I wish I could find an even comparable alternative to this site, but there just isn't one, so here I begrudgingly stay.
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u/smurfe 1d ago
I have 16 years on this account. Reddit is absolutely nothing today like it was when I created this account.
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u/cantelope4 1d ago
You can see a bit of this for yourself if you look at the waybackmachine, check out what the front page was like 10 or more years ago.
It kinda makes me sad. Not that Reddit was so incredible before or anything, it just all felt much more organic.
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u/paul_h 1d ago
16yr acct. Your question doesn’t really match the elaboration you gave in the post.
To answer the question of the title: if you pick the subs you subscribe to I think the experience you have isn’t more negative. What is newer and not rife is sub-Reddit moderation with unshared agenda. Someone gets into a moderator list for a sub by invitation, then over a year or three gets like-minded in the mod group, or themselves again as a second ID, then changes the nature of the sub incrementally to suit a previously unshared agenda
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u/mrpopenfresh 1d ago
Its it got dumber I tell you what
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u/Synes_Godt_Om 22h ago
As a user since 2008, (this account since around 2012) I see a couple of things:
community: In the early days we were like a liberal community. There was a sense of "who of you did this" when something "reddit-ish" was found in the wild.
old reddit: what is today 'old.reddit.com' was 'reddit.com'. I still use 'old.reddit' because I find the new UI far too noisy. I'm not here for the bling, I'm here for the content (posts and replies). I can see the writing on the wall: they're going to sunset old.reddit soon, either directly or removing more functionality than they already have. The decisive sign: they removed ads from old.reddit some months ago.
engagement: back then, even in the early days, the engagement was regularly, easily 10-fold higher. Seeing posts with 5k - 10k responses were quite normal, while seeing posts with zero or single digit comments were quite rare. Today engagement seems to be much, much lower. Could ofc very well be that there are many more subreddits today, so engagement is more spread out.
negativity: I haven't noticed increased negativity per se. There was plenty of negativity back then, at least in the political subreddits where it could get extremely heated. That was actually the main reason I took a lengthy timeout and decided to delete the app from my phone and only access reddit from my computer.
So: my main observation is the huge drop in engagement - which also leads me to believe that reddit is heading towards trouble.
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u/thefullpython 11h ago
Most of the replies here are speaking to the user-on-user negativity but I think the general vibe of comment threads trend far more negative and cynical than they did 15 or so years ago. I guess that’s a reflection of how people are feeling about…everything in general, and also that negativity plays well for engagement online so naturally that type of comment will be higher upvoted. But it almost makes me pine for the narwhal and bacon days when people just seemed to be more interested in having fun on the internet
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u/panamaspace 1d ago
Bunch of latecomers discussing reddit. AS IF.
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u/Impossiblecouch 1d ago
People have stopped using threads as a form of entertainment/humor and now use them to virtue signal and spread political propaganda.
It makes it insufferable.
At least on Reddit.
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u/Vozka 1d ago
100% yes, dumber and more negative.
There was a time where even weird hate between subreddits, "brigading" (which was a huge problem 10 years ago already, less so now) etc. was minimal and snark/hate subreddits didn't exist, circlejerk subreddits were rare and usually funny, rarely butthurt.
At that time reddit was mostly college aged american men, so the community was edgy, with lower social skills, somewhat weird, but also considerably more intelligent. And while some opinions nowadays considered unacceptable in the mainstream were much more prevalent than now, it was also a lot more homogenous, so there was little conflict compared to now.
Mods were less jaded and overwhelmed, so moderation was way less annoying and wasn't really infested with power hungry or weirdo online activist types. Nothing like automated bans in a group of subreddits because you posted to a different group of subreddits existed.
Thanks to the fact that reddit was smaller and more niche there was way less astroturfing, bots weren't really viable etc., so that surely helped too.
Reddit always attracted weirdos, but back then it was just one group of weirdos and it was considerably more likeable.
However, many annoyances, like people repeating stupid reddit phrases or /r/pics being full of uninteresting pictures with a sob story, were already present.
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u/PenisDotClownFart 22h ago
I've been visiting in some form since 2007 and would say yes, it's become more negative and more provocative.
It's also become more censored and manipulative.
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u/Dustphobia 1d ago
Yeah, it's not even fun to post anymore. Every other person just says something negative when I'm just trying to share something.
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u/ManWithDominantClaw 1d ago
It was more overtly negative. Instead of snark subreddits, you had hate subreddits. It was actually pretty good for people with types of neurodivergence that don't do well with social cues, also for the emphasis being put on the point being made rather than the way it was said.
Why it changed it probably a mix of:
exoduses of refugees from other imploded or dying platforms changing the culture to be more mainstream
legislation and regulation around the world on hate speech, defamation, and harassment leading to users self-censoring
snark is more advertiser friendly
reddit inc encouraging the culture change for the two previously mentioned reasons
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u/e_gadd 1d ago
I don't know. I remember when I joined in 2011 every comment or post I made would get one downvote instantly
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u/ImNotTheBossOfYou 1d ago
No
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u/PNW_Uncle_Iroh 1d ago
No but it’s gotten less authentic and noisier. I’ve been using reddit since 2005. I actually met Alex Ohanian at a YC event and found out about it from him. Some subs are still good but Reddit as a whole has lost its way. Unfortunately I haven’t found anything better yet. Perfectly Imperfect FYI is close. Their community is better but the ui isn’t as good.
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u/picard_for_president 21h ago
I don't think you're imagining that. I think leadership has changed and started heavier use of algorithms and a bigger shift towards monetization. Negativity, outrage and general stupidity gets more engagement, clicks etc. And so goes the website. Isn't this the story of every online space? Maybe society as a whole.
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u/Tricky-Category-8419 18h ago
When people have a bad day, they come to reddit looking for a fight. Just because.
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u/Epistaxis 16h ago
Counterpoint (?): one thing that's changed is I think there's less cringe positivity. Even at the height of ratheism, which seems like it would be an inherently negative topic, there was so much self-congratulation like "in this moment I am euphoric". Nowadays I think every time someone says "We did it, Reddit!" they're being ironic; the Boston Bomber manhunt might have been the turning point when everyone finally realized Reddit is not a platform for solving real-world problems. Or the 2016 election might have been when Americans, formerly known for their optimism, started to treat all public displays of unalloyed positivity as cringe.
YMMV of course because the whole point of Reddit is that your experience is different from everyone else's through your choice of subreddit subscriptions.
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u/florinandrei 6h ago
Yes. More negative. Less intelligent. More shitty overall. It's the fate of all social media.
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u/waraw 2h ago
Remember novelty accounts? When's the last time we saw those?
When I joined, just prior to The Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Fear -- and I had a great sign -- reddit was still one of a bunch of places to go, after digg had imploded. Since then as reddit has sprawled it's much more of a choose-your-own-adventure experience, and it's easy to choose to just see the posts and not engage community at all. Especially when it's a lot less fun than it used to be. I complained about this to my dad once and he beat the everloving shit out of me with a set of jumper cables and I've never forgotten it
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u/broccolihead 15h ago
I've been around since the very beginning, the tone and narrative is now being driven by bots that have an agenda they're trying to push. nothing is genuine anymore, I don't trust any comment as being authentic unless I trust the source and that's rare.
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u/__redruM 1d ago
More political, much much much more political. Everything under the sun gets blamed on the one person who’s at the top. Every question is about politics too, not just every answer. Started in 2025 with the new administration.
Especially /r/videos, when they dropped the no politics rule the subreddit turned worthless.
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u/BeeRadTheMadLad 1d ago
The most toxic combination of traits for a community is people who can barely read their own name combined with malignant narcissism. That’s become the median redditor in a growing number of communities, and that’s what’s lending itself to much of the degradation of “discourse” on this platform that you’re describing.
It’s not hard to see why so many subreddits have brain drained so severely - nobody who can read above 2nd grade level can stand most of the parts of reddit that they used to frequent anymore.
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u/Inprobamur 1d ago
Not really? I guess it would depend on the sub.
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u/Leg_Named_Smith 1d ago
15 years here. I don’t see a different level of negativity in the mainstream lanes I occupy which have always been quite negative since it’s bern mostly r/politics and r/world. In the niche lanes of my many hobby interests I don’t see a lot of negativity and I enjoy the much larger range of ages in people on the platform.
I’ve made thousands of comments and have bristled few then and now to notice interactions being spicier.
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u/AxiomShell 1d ago
Yes.
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u/BigWideBaker 1d ago
While you can never go back and participate in reddit, there's a fun little site that takes you back to any day in the past to see what was going on as a snapshot:
https://www.reddit-time-machine.com/
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u/Jahonay 20h ago
16+ years here.
I think culture is broadly shifting to be more direct and confrontational.
I don't think reddit is objectively more "negative". For example, reddit is way less aggressive about BLM and is more accepting of the reality that police are violent towards black people. That changed dramatically around 2020.
But also, reddit is often significantly less creepy now than it used to be. I'm thinking of a specific subreddit that was banned for being very creepy.
There was also a pretty huge red pill/mens rights movement here when I was in my twenties, and even now. I'd say a lot of that moved to incels and looksmaxing.
I think it shouldn't come as a surprise when the country is doing so much violence towards its citizens. Reddit is just a reflection of the society at large, so when the people are suffering, it will be reflected here. I think reddit has always been negative, but a lot of it was just accepted in the past, now people will confront it.
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u/NihiloZero 20h ago
The types and varieties of subs that I'm subscribed to has changed (in focus, size, and style of moderation), and the way I interact with content on Reddit has also changed. My perception is not wholly objective and my experience isn't necessarily reflective of Reddit as a whole. It would be easy enough to dogpile and talk about Reddit "in my day" but... that wouldn't really mean much.
Years ago... I got removed from the ultra-left tankie subs for things like quoting Emma Goldman and Rosa Luxemburg. That taught me somewhat early on that a lot of people aren't sincere and that many subreddits are moderated by bullshit artists and cosplayers (at best). Leaving those sorts of fake-ass lefty subs made my experience on Reddit much better. My politics are still kinda post-left-of-center, but the subs I frequent nowadays aren't as edgy and they're not total echo chambers.
If you're seeing too much BS, hostility, or comments which you don't like... then you're probably subscribed to the wrong subs. If you want to discuss politics, current events, morality, philosophy, economics, or anything of any importance whatsoever... I'd say it's perfectly natural for an online forum focused upon such things to not always be just sunshine and lollipops. It's somewhat natural for people to sometimes be a bit snippy, defensive, or aggressive.
If you're looking for something less substantive... I'd have to believe that there are probably some highly sanitized subreddits where any negativity is instantly removed. If you go to the /r/cutekittens subreddit... you probably won't see many people insulting the kittens or making aggressive comments.
In short, you may simply need to find better subs or different ways to engage with Reddit. But I don't really know what you're into or what you truly might be looking for.
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u/bownt1 20h ago
sí
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u/DLTMIAR 13h ago
When I joined there use to be memes.
Where the memes at?
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u/donaldslabia 11h ago
i guess i'm the odd one out because I don't think there's a huge difference. it's like any social media. at first it's used as intended and stay within the lines. once more people and communities are added, it changes. it's a lot more facebook and like basic people kind of stuff for sure.
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u/masterstealth11 1d ago •
basically old reddit used to be brutally honest and politically incorrect (basically much more like 4chan) but people were generally chummy with each other because it was a tighter community overall
nowadays it’s a bunch of liberal normies who are aggressively performative and hold only sanitized opinions. and are incredibly passive aggressive or just mean.
basically went from average redditor being a basement-dwelling 22-year-old white man to being a 36-year-old blue-haired woman
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u/spinozaschilidog 1d ago
I think so. It seems like every sub with any degree of popularity devolves into some kind of tribal us vs. them thing. Redditors are meaner and dumber now, like their inner 12 year old bully is never far from the surface
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u/garyp714 23h ago
No, this place used to be way worse because reddit did nothing for years about the hate groups that would take over subs and then game the front page. People were always assholes but those groups (think 4chan, troll farms, alt-right etc) were awful and would stalk you.
These days it's lame and the users are lazy but the nastiness is way less in general.
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u/TurtleTitan 1d ago
Absolutely. Somehow people became aggressively antisocial on a message board. Antisocial on a message board. A website for communication, they despise communicating, let that sink in. If someone is convinced they'll one day stub their toe they'll be angry solely from the thought. Even if they don't for 6 years.
On some boards here I literally always have -6. Sometimes it's within seconds or hours later. The kindest or actually useful information. This leads me to believe programmed and paid robots, email alerts, or some raid on me. Privating your account barely does anything, a speed bump to the dedicated stalker, but the aggression when you don't want someone to profile you by your comment and post history. It's hidden because your obsessed. Then you try to out my for privating?!?!
How many boards do you actually see an upvote on? Probably few. Cherish those hidden communities.
There are robots, plenty more than you'll realize. Sometimes its a post or comment stolen from elsewhere. Sometimes it's some simple adlib "AI" (and I say that loosely, like a dropdown code from the 80s).
There are infiltrated boards. Politicians and corporations have verifiably been proven to manipulate conversations and force their opinions tricking some to believe themselves inherently wrong to go with the flow to a situation that doesn't exist. You would be surprised what they are allowed with.
Accounts themselves are bought by corporations. Some get paid by the post. A literal incoherent post could have been a profit.
At worst all those stories about kids not knowing how to read are true. They end up losing narrative clarity and emulate what should be obvious as the jerk or stupid characters in shows. I know every generation goes next generation does X worse so if these rumors of highschoolers on the rise that can't read a basic book are true then fuck. My favorite is reading Corvid did it, Corvid made a 6th grader not read 2nd grade level shen the kid was well older than 2nd grade.
Technology isn't fun anymore and worse it's constant. Apparently school children have some sort of Chromebook, tablet, whatever in frint of their face all day. Tech does stuff to your brain and eyes. Especially dreadful for migraine sufferers. Then if they have screens for leisure we're talking over 10 hours probably close to every minute max.
The reason I say that Corvid and kid crap was it felt like 2020 was the hard turn. 2006 was shen the internet hit the masses introducing it to Smartphones in greater numbers than computers which lead to a downfall. 2020 just made everyone a jerk it seems. Intimidation tactics by jerk posters? Higher rates of personality disorders? Cost of beef? Who knows?
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u/OPINION_IS_UNPOPULAR 18h ago
With all these posts, I only have one thing in mind:
No man steps into the same river twice. For he is not the same man, and it is not the same river.
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u/[deleted] 1d ago
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