Blog Post #7 - Diffusion Theory

The website Reddit.com was founded in 2005 by 2 college students at the University of Virginia. It was originally created as a forum-based website where you could create separate forums for individual hobbies, activities, or subjects also known as “subreddits”. After it moved onto AWS servers in late 2009, Reddit tripled in page views and reached a billion page visits by 2011. By this point, Reddit was a popular forum website, widely used across the internet. It made it possible for people with smaller interests and hobbies to communicate and bond with people with similar interests. This is what the early adopters were using Reddit for.

Once more people joined the website, the number of subreddits increased rapidly and eventually there were so many, you could look up anything and you’d be sure to find what you were looking for. By the time the late adopters rolled around, Reddit had been a place to trade information. Personal experiences, stories, and how-tos all became staples of Reddit. Generally, if there is any activity-based information that I need, I go to Reddit first. For example, there are many times I need to fix my car but I don’t know how to do it. First I would locate the subreddit for working on my specific car and then find the exact question I need to find. Often times there are people, even if it’s few, that have the same issue as you. I would’ve never been able to fix some problems I’ve had if some guy on Reddit didn’t have the same issue and posted his solution on the website.

Communication is sped up rapidly with Reddit, it makes it easy to spread information on primarily niche topics. But Reddit isn’t all niche activities. People now post up-to-date news and current events as they happen. You also get a lot of differing opinions on Reddit, many users often engage in vigorous discussion and debate with other users based on their particular views. This exposes people to other opinions they might have never heard without this resource. In the case of Reddit, the positives outweigh the negatives. Leaving comments on a thread leaves a limited digital footprint as opposed to Instagram or Facebook, which are more personal-based. Users of Reddit can make their opinions known while staying anonymous. I think this is really what makes the website work.