A pretty good reminder not to take important advice from reddit
Definitely some bias here.
Nobody posts “My wife and I love each other very much and we are very happy. What should we do about it?”
So, most of these situations aren’t good to begin with, and typically when there’s a dispute, people tend to paint the other person in a much more negative light. Often in the case of “He did this for NO REASON!” usually there is a reason we don’t know about, and commenters might be more willing to suggest staying together if they knew what that reason was.
Why would the bias change over time, though? That would exist in 2010 and 2025.
I had the same thought as you, but there are perhaps other factors which could contribute to this too.
We see the chart and assume the shift is due to more negative bias in how people respond, but it could also be due to a change in how people post.
For one, the demographics of reddit would have slowly changed over time, from largely a bunch of nerds in 2010 when reddit was niche, to a more general cross-section of society as reddit became closer to mainstream social media.
This (among other factors) may have brought with it a shift in motivations from people genuinely seeking advice (and therefore posting truthful stories) to people seeking validation and a cathartic dose of upvotes (and therefore posting highly biased stories which favour themselves, and paint their partner in a terrible light)
Now, I don’t think that explains all of it. I do feel on a purely personal and qualitative basis that the Internet in general has certainly become more toxic over the past decade, and that people are more angry and hostile now. But I don’t think it’s necessarily a single-factor cause.
Yep. That entirely tracks with my expereince. there was a huge shift in the userbase around 2016 and lots of validation/drama seeking users started showing up and mobbing subreddits with their shitty attitudes.
i was part of a sub from 2013-2019 and around 2016 it the userbase shifted to whiny entitled jerks from more chill people who could argue and debate and were seeking legit community/advice. the new users just wanted DRAMA and entertainment to the point they would just start picking fights and making posts about how ‘problematic’ other users were.
