Musings on Reddit

I'm a big fan of Reddit, I own the stock (RDDT), I think there are genuinely good people who use Reddit and try to provide good advice, and I've gained a lot of good knowledge on the site from crowdsourced material and AMA sessions (Ask Me Anything) that you can tell is the actual person claiming to be who they are. That said......I think Reddit, much like the rest of the internet, can cause a lot of anxiety if you're on it too long. The same old adage of "anything is excess can be dangerous," and the Internet is rife with excess. MJ was a very diligent user of Reddit for her IVF process, and credit to her she really read every single comment, compared notes with different subreddits, found stories that aligned with our case. The IVF reddit, though, can be a breeding ground for trauma, horror stories, and jealousy.... MJ reported that eventually people who went on there to post about their successful IVF cycles received retaliation and backlash for "oversharing" or seeming too proud of themselves for having been successful while others were still having difficulties. It's such a difficult balance to have sympathy for those who are going through setbacks and frustration, but what's wrong with sharing successful IVF stories if they are genuinely trying to help other people going through the same process? Something beautiful and productive eventually devolved into doing harm. Similary with preparing for children, reddit can really cause anxiety with everyone posting special cases. I do wonder if the people who go on Reddit are the ones with extreme conditions or feel the need to share all the time; those who are just trying to help just stay calm and don't say anything. My suspicions were confirmed today at a "parent council" (one of MJ's friends had a pool party where tons of kids the same age came along with their parents) and multiple parents told me, "don't be alarmed by what you read on the Internet.") A lot of what's on the Internet is for pushing products or for commercial gain, as newborn parents are the most vulnerable to doing whatever they can to get this baby thing right (I'm already getting a lot of videos popping up in my feed about birthing classes and birthing products) and what better way to sell something than to appeal to fear and making people feel inadequate, or unprepared? If only there were a magic pill or get-out-of-jail free card that we can get for taking care of everything in the childcaring process. I often wonder also who the average user is and why they're so confident and assured in their beliefs; I often am not sure about anything I say and second-guess myself all the time, being convinced by something somebody else said I hadn't thought about. I notice this pretty often actually; I find in American culture people tend to say things with confidence a lot more even in cases where they shouldn't have had that much confidence. It could also just be the anonymity of the Internet and not having to face any social consequences; I also post on Reddit sometimes and I feel the freedom to post my strongest opinions (without need to post evidence) in a faceless forum where people are not reading my facial expressions or seeing who I am that they can remember me for next time. What IS good for reddit? The Jeopardy reddit, or reddit for TV shows. So much analysis and articles I never thought about, angles to explore, other shows to watch. The Jeopardy reddit is pretty chock full of former contestants (you can tell from the highlighted part in their bio when they appeared on the show) and future contestants talking about the show. Good resource for sure for all things Jeopardy, and not too serious as to render any trauma or drama like the IVF reddit.