Anyone else feel like they're aging out of Reddit?
I'm an elder(ish?) millennial on the cusp of 40, and reddit has been the most social media presence I've ever had (beyond the few years I spent on MySpace in highschool). After MySpace, I primarily lurked on i-am-bored.com, then Imgur, and upon the death of those platforms, Reddit. I always preferred these platforms because they seemed to showcase creativity and ideas over personal branding and ego expression (looking at you FaceBook and Twitter). But lately, Reddit has just been...boring.
I think most of us know Reddit has been degrading precipitously over the last few years. I still appreciate the OC I see on the artistic subs I follow, but even those have been infiltrated by nonsense. AI slop overflows so many of the subs I used to love, and propaganda bots usually find a way to insert themselves into irrelevant conversations. Many of the memes coming through reference movies and characters I have no interest in, and while I appreciate the occasional joke, there's a constant regurgitation of the same humor being repeated ad nauseam. On top of that, content is constantly being pushed for by people that are paying money for the exposure: remember how Sydney Sweeney was flooding our feeds for months last year?
I guess I'm saying, it all feels so *curated* now. Amazing content still comes through, but the posts are few and far between. I'll admit, I was addicted to reddit. It was an amazing way to see people authentically share their thoughts and experiences through the safety of a semi-anonymous platform. Now when I pick up reddit, I find myself getting bored with the repetition of jokes and the inundation of marketing.
Part of me is grateful, I've been reading more (f-amazon and audible, visit your local library or buy used books from a online used book retailer like "biblio"). However, part of me is sad - reddit was an amazing way to digitally connect to people from across the world. It feels like the loss of an old friend in some ways.
TLDR: old lady yelling at clouds, but not really, because the clouds are no longer there.