Slope Media Group

Reddit?

“Here’s a picture of a cat playing Xbox against Richard Dawkins wearing Yoda ears.”  Stephen Colbert nails a description of what the average redditor would upvote through the roof.  If you don’t know what a redditor or upvoting is, that’s okay, many people aren’t as cool as us.

Reddit is an online platform where users, called redditors, post links or text posts that they deem interesting.  These posts can be “upvoted” or “downvoted,” and the posts with the most upvotes end up on the front page.  The site is divided into several communities called subreddits denoted with a /r/, the most popular subreddits being r/pics and r/funny.

The site launched in 2005 and now has well over twenty million unique visitors.  The reason reddit is interesting isn’t because it’s so popular, but because it resonates such a strong sense of community.  For example, reddit hosts the largest Secret Santa program in the world. Not to mention that the Christianity, Islam, and Atheism subreddits get together to donate for charity.  A more recent reddit tale tells of how an orphanage in Kenya was bombarded by thieves and in no less than 24 hours, reddit raised $65,000 for new walls and security guards.

Yes, the users of reddit may be superheroes that delve into intellectual conversation on a daily basis, but like everyone else, redditors can’t help but tear up when they see a picture of a kitten.  Yes, redditors like cats.  A lot.  One stop to the subreddit r/aww will probably take up the majority of your day, so be warned.

Aside from the huge cat loving and atheist community, one can find subreddits on practically anything.  This means finding people with similar interests and mindsets on a whole array of subjects that can even lead to work productivity.  If Ezra Cornell were to visit reddit, he would probably be very proud.  “I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study.”