Reddit, once a misfit with scruffy language and an unappealing interface has become the benefactor and antidote to an internet suffocating under algorithmic polish.
Reddit's marketing is non-existent and it's ad features are barebones but it's global logged-in users have grown 27% to 44.1 million.
AI has helped platforms like Google bump user-generated content to the top giving Reddit prime real estate in our search results.
AI has also created a 'filter bubble' effect which boosts short-term engagement and dwell time but leads users to intellectual comatose.
Reddit is a space where users can move beyond the calculated déjà vu of other platforms and break from the algorithmic leash.
Other platforms are programmed to amplify high-clout users, creating a digital caste system that's rooted in social comparison theory stifling smaller users.
On Reddit's unapologetically anti-status platform, even the smallest voices are passed the megaphone and posts rise purely on their own merit.
Reddit plays guard to the genuine, where anonymity and content-first engagement free users from the aesthetic rat race.
Reddit provides a dopamine hit for those tired of algorithmic etiquette and is a space where curiosity isn't a liability but the entire point.
Reddit has become one of the last places where culture still lives, by refusing to curate culture it has redefined influence by never trying to influence users.