Is it just me, or has Reddit become more toxic lately?
I know Reddit has always had a combative tone. I'm not trying to claim there was ever some golden age where everyone was charitable and thoughtful.
But lately I've noticed what feels like an increase in the baseline level of hostility across the site, not just in one subreddit. More threads seem to turn into dunking, bad-faith readings, pile-ons, moralizing, a snarky reply at every opportunity.
I'm curious whether other long-time users have noticed the same thing. Whether there's any evidence for a platform-wide shift in norms, or if this is mostly nostalgia / selection bias / subreddit choice.
For people who have used Reddit for years: does the overall tone feel noticeably more hostile lately, even compared to Reddit's usual level of snark and argument? If so, when did you start noticing it, and what do you think changed?