December is always a time to take stock of the past year, and Reddit is no exception to this rule. Net social just published a very informative review of 2022. In particular, we learn that there are 100,000 communities on the site, that 430 millions messages were posted there, as well as 2.5 billion comments.
r/amitheasshole, UFOs on the Internet of the 2020s
Among the most active communities, the number one most viewed comment is r/amitheasshole (also known by its acronym AITA). We can modestly translate this term as “am I an asshole? » This forum deserves special attention. It was created in 2013 by an internet user who wanted to know if he was engaging in sexist behavior with his co-workers. FROM, son success has never been denied, and in the subreddit just under 5 millions “potential assholes”. Specifically, each member can post a message about a destabilizing situation they have experienced in their personal lives. Their publication begins with “AITA”. Members of the forum then comment, using notes confirming their wrongness, or vice versa, believing that they have nothing to do with it. it’s the same possible that the blame is shared among all the protagonists of the anecdote, but also that each was right in acting as he did. By visiting this subreddit, we found questions such as “Am I an asshole if I make my guest sleep on the couch in the living room when he has a back problem?” Numerous testimonies emphasized that he was right and was the master in his own house. Finally, r/amitheasshole is somewhat reminiscent of letters from readers of teen magazines, in which the latter asked their questions to a psychologist or mediator. We are also thinking about free radio stations where listeners ask for advice and a little support. face to problems in their daily lives.
Testify without being destroyed
In 2020, our Guardian colleagues interviewed Eleanor Gordon-Smith, an ethicist at Princeton University, about this success. Then she explained: “There is something almost breathtaking in looking behind the curtain of someone else’s life, hearing their strange thoughts – what they think deep down about their partner, their children, their friends. » By the moderators on affirms the fact that this space was not made to destroy the person who testified. Therefore, managers claim a less toxic atmosphere than on mainstream social media.
