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created by [deleted] on 13/11/2024 at 13:32 UTC*
73 upvotes, 14 top-level comments (showing 14)
[deleted]
Comment by Kijafa at 13/11/2024 at 14:46 UTC
51 upvotes, 3 direct replies
The issue is that for reddit, the company, this is a feature and not a bug. The behavior you describe is good for engagement numbers, and anger keeps people clicking and commenting. Anything that forced users to read and article before commenting would cause lower engagement as the average user's attention span would run out before they got through a paragraph.
As a poster, you can always drop your own comment to try and drive the discussion, but generally the direction of the discussion is going to be driven by the first dozen or so commenters who are all racing to make the most engaging comment as fast as possible (which usually means not reading the content of the post).
Comment by UntimelyMeditations at 13/11/2024 at 14:27 UTC
33 upvotes, 2 direct replies
More than half americans read below a sixth grade reading level.
Comment by loressadev at 13/11/2024 at 16:21 UTC
12 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I think this is bigger than reddit. I post creative writing and sometimes - in subs where people explicitly come to read creative writing - I'll get replies like "I don't really understand what I read, but it felt cool to read" or "Why am I feeling x emotion?"
There's something very interesting going on with written language that I think the internet and tech have helped shape: text itself is sometimes background noise. I see it as akin to the symphony shifting from a rapt theater to the radio in the car - instead of focusing in concentration, we now pluck themes and emotions from a quick impression.
We scroll, create a narrative, interact and then scroll again.
Comment by CaCl2 at 13/11/2024 at 20:32 UTC*
10 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The worst is when you ask a moderately+ difficult question on any topic and most of the replies are answers to some much easier-to-answer misinterpretation of the question.
For bonus points, you may even get people calling you dumb for asking such an obvious question.
Reddit is full of this, Quora has even more of this, on stack exchange it seems a bit less common, probably because often the moderators will also misinterpret the question and just delete it as a duplicate of the easy question.
Comment by DharmaPolice at 13/11/2024 at 15:11 UTC
6 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I think on balance it's better to have lower engagement but better understanding than lots of engagement with more people missing your point.
I don't think it's helpful to just say we're doomed (even if it's probably true). We all need to get better at writing for the audience we're likely to get. Sure, a certain amount of misunderstanding/misreading is inevitable but why encourage it with ambiguity or clickbait-y tactics. I've certainly written things that I knew could be taken the wrong way but laziness prevented me from rephrasing. Sometimes it's fine but other times it blows up in your face and it's no good saying "Yeah I knew you'd take it the wrong way".
This isn't just a Reddit problem obviously, it's a more general issue. Business emails/messages are routinely misunderstood and I learned a long time ago that you need to work on being *really* clear if you want a fighting chance of people who skim read something (which is almost everyone all the time) to understand it. And that's in a setting where people are being paid for their time.
Comment by Dunkmaxxing at 13/11/2024 at 16:25 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
For most people, emotions are easy and reading any amount of text requires cognitive effort. Reddit is used by the general population, and even though it attracts those who are more literate/educated, there are still plenty of bozos and lazy people overall so this is what you get.
Comment by evange at 13/11/2024 at 18:48 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
simply scanning the words in the title to see if any trigger a feeling of defensiveness or anger and then writing a response based on the selective word cloud.
Is that poor reading comprehension.... or AI?
Comment by Morduru at 13/11/2024 at 17:28 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I couldn't quantify it, but I really think a lot of what looks like reading comprehension issues is just misrepresentation and arguing in bad faith.
Comment by astrowifey at 13/11/2024 at 19:14 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
how dare you say that everyone on Reddit has no reading comprehension!!!! next you're going to say we piss on the poor!!!!
/s
Comment by TheVerdantVermin at 14/11/2024 at 21:56 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Every time I look at reddit, post length seems to keep getting shorter and shorter. It’s ridiculous because it means you don’t engage with the material at all. For me it means things are getting more and more boring on here. I wish there was some part of the algorithm that brings comments with more than three sentences up in the algorithm.
Comment by iwannaddr2afi at 27/11/2024 at 23:46 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I just got to this sub after being on Reddit for...ever, and I feel so much better about the world at the moment. Only tangentially related to this thread, but this was the thread that drove it home. There *are* still a pool of intelligent users. Phew!
I don't have a solution, but I will say I very much agree with the assessment. I tend to pose questions that assume people have read the article (or whatever), and have many times gotten reactions that made it clear that maybe 5% of engagement was from people who actually had and understood the question. I've had mods delete posts because they clearly also didn't read and understand the post, for not being on-topic.
I get that some subs enforce straightforwardness, simplicity, and obvious topicality ("if you have to explain why the post belongs here, it probably doesn't"), and I'm not talking about posts which stretch topicality at all, or about those subs at all. Makes me want to jump off a bridge lol
Comment by nvmbernine at 13/11/2024 at 14:03 UTC*
5 upvotes, 4 direct replies
Unfortunately general intelligence is in steady decline, and directly correlates to this problem, along with an inability to articulate oneself adequately, form cohesive arguments and indeed spell correctly.
Over the last decade this has become alarmingly apparent on the likes of social media, but especially so here, on Reddit, the platform I once considered superior to the rest, for its, now declining, intellect.
Comment by SuperFLEB at 13/11/2024 at 19:52 UTC*
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I like your "solution" just as a way to have fun with people, a bit of trolling (that's actually sporting, even fun, and not just "Shout something objectionable to raise ire"). I'm a fan of the old Reddit switcheroo, and other sorts of old switcheroo, myself. Granted, if you get too subtle and the proper-readers don't eventually show up, you could always end up laden with a stringer full of dimwits and nobody to share the joke.
There's also just the direct route, "I don't know where you're getting that from, but it wasn't from my comment. I said ..." or "Tell me where in my comment I said that".
Beyond that, you just can't get too bummed out if you end up plowed under from poor reading. You win some, you lose some, and Reddit is ultimately a leisure activity. This is not to say that you can't discuss or lament the trend, but the idea of strategizing your way around it just seems like taking it too seriously.
Comment by throwaway9gk0k4k569 at 30/11/2024 at 10:33 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Reddit is retards and feelz > realz.