The Rise of Reddit

by Bridget Cook ’14

Ever heard of “Ridiculously Photogenic Guy,” “Forever Alone” or “Grumpy Cat?” Then you might be a Redditor. Founded in 2005, the social news and entertainment website has soared in popularity, gaining recognition and use from a vast demographic, including teenagers. The site not only covers national news, politics and popular culture, but serves as the birthplace to many viral internet memes and trends.

Users submit their own content which other users deem worthy of the world’s attention through “upvotes,” or knock off the front page of the site with “downvotes.” Like Facebook, the site began as a way for users to intermingle and discuss the latest happenings of the world. Since then, Reddit not only acts as a forum for the educated to discuss politics, but provides an online community for teens and adults alike to engage in lighthearted humor.

Each individual forum focusing on a topic such as the president, science and technology, cats (a Reddit staple) or funny pictures is known as a “subreddit.” As one of the top subreddits, r/funny alone gets between two and eight million daily views for the site. Much of the content on this subreddit is posted by those who use Reddit solely as an entertaining way to unwind after school or work, and it’s common to see candid photos of people with strange facial expressions, publicly misspelled words and cats getting into trouble.

“I tend to only visit r/funny … because, well, it’s funny!” said junior Rachel Paris. There are more serious and controversial subreddits as well for those who feel inclined to discuss taboo issues. R/atheism has grown to over 450,000 members, and r/trees, a Marijuana discussion center boasts over 180,000 subscribers. With over a billion hits and counting each month, Reddit has previously popular social media such as Myspace cowering in the corner. Reddit also boasts the ability to cover hot topics before even the most prestigious news companies get to them because users from all over the world post about events in real time as they happen. With such a diverse international usage, it’s hard for Reddit to miss a thing.

Besides covering news and other popular issues, Reddit also fosters the creation of many internet memes. Usually starting with a picture or comment posted by a user, these memes blow up in a matter of hours and become the topic of interest for teens and adults alike. It’s common to integrate these memes into everyday life, and high school students have become especially fond of using the internet trends in conversation. “[They do] kind of seep into the way you speak,” said sophomore Matthew Gerstel.

Celebrities also help the fame of Reddit by creating accounts and participating in a question forum known as an “AMA” or “Ask Me Anything.” The biggest AMA in Reddit’s history was the session with President Obama back in August 2012, which caused surging site traffic and crashing servers with its 5,598,171 page views.

Between the controversial topics, celebrities, news, memes and goofy cat pictures that have given Reddit its rise to fame, the site always stays true to its self-given nickname: “the front page of the internet.”