Reddit's gotten plenty of deserved criticism over the years for hosting some of the most toxic communities on the internet. But a new study published this month in the Journal of Medical Internet Research suggests that at least some subreddits are helping people dealing with depression and other mental health issues come out of their shells.
Most major cities around the world have an active forum on Reddit. And if you plan to visit any of these cities, you can learn a lot of tourism advice without even asking by digging through the archives.
You open what looks like a bill, but it's just junk mail. You click through a donation process too fast, and they turn your one-time donation into a monthly contribution. A snack's packaging makes it look bigger; an opinion poll is obviously one-sided; when you copy-paste a line from an article, the site adds a "read more" link for your "convenience." Don't express your impotent rage alone. Take it to Reddit's /r/assholedesign, a place to expose and discuss evil design tricks.
Many parents spend the winter furiously checking Forecast Bar, awaiting that moment in the future when their kids can finally go outside instead of watching that same episode of Peppa Pig for the 18th time or asking you: "Do we have any more glitter? I spilled all of mine on the carpet." Not Reddit user aggregate_jeff. To help beat cabin fever, this dad built an indoor play structure in his house.
If you're looking for an Android smartphone you could do a lot worse than a Google Pixel. The company's handsets promise cutting-edge hardware and instant updates to all the latest software - but that doesn't mean they're perfect.
Away from the Trump supporter spam and creepy fake celebrity porn, Reddit is still home to uplifting conversations, useful information and weird-arse videos. The key is, and always has been, subscribing to the right subreddits. The Lifehacker team shares our favourites below.
You may have heard that Reddit, the front page of the Internet, is updating their website with a sweeping redesign that aligns the desktop experience with what users have been getting on mobile devices for some time. The changes have started to roll out for desktop users and ... not everyone is happy with them. Some people already want to revert Reddit to its old style.
Here's what you need to know about the Reddit redesign - and the simple way to keep the classic Reddit style.
Reddit's endless stream of memes, comments, and self-referential jokes can be intimidating to newcomers. Even if you've been reading the site for years there's still plenty of new subreddits to discover. But no matter how well you know Reddit, you could be having an even better experience by installing a few extra Chrome extensions.
On the latest episode of The Upgrade, we're talking about the self-proclaimed "front page of the internet", the massive online community known as Reddit. For some, Reddit is a second home, a place to hang out, post links, chat and trash talk with like-minded friends and foes. For others, it's a confusing rabbit warren with its own weird rules and etiquette, a teeming hive of enthusiasts and trolls, an overwhelming curiosity that they might visit every now and then, but who has time to learn to navigate what's essentially a complex system of message boards?
I watched Westworld months after it aired, and I felt lonely; no one still wanted to talk about it. Half the fun of a good work of entertainment - a TV show, a movie, a book, even a podcast or video game - is talking about it, studying it, learning more about it. Any good work of art benefits from study, and a bad work of art benefits from laughing at it with someone.
As much as people make fun of the internet for being a place to put your most boring thoughts, there's actually such tough competition for attention that if you want any reaction, you have to be super interesting. Even the famous subreddit /r/mildlyinteresting is full of fascinating stuff such as a panicked vending machine, surprise twinsies and a nine-fingered pianist. Your boring-arse story doesn't register. Unless you go to /r/benignexistence.
Parents today are stressed. They have lost old friends. They miss their old hobbies. They're too tired for sex. They feel judged. A few years ago, one study reported that the drop in happiness after having a first kid was larger than when experiencing unemployment, divorce or the death of a partner. Yes, unemployment, divorce or the death of a partner. A lot of factors play into the struggle - economics, social media, the dissolution of the parenting village - but a big one has got to be this: We care a whole lot about fulfilling the wishes of our kids.
Languages are so interesting and the etymology of 'giraffe' legitimately did blow my mind this morning. The English word for giraffe, until about the 1600s, was not actually 'giraffe'.
Nope. They used to be known as 'Camelopards'.
Reddit has been slowly rolling out two-factor authentication for beta testers, moderators and third-party app developers for a while now before making it available to everyone over the past few days.
Reddit, that bastion of human kindness and human depravity, is the perfect source for Evil Week. With anonymous handles and endless discussions taking place, people are more than happy to reveal some of their most devious behaviours. One particular thread of note highlighted some of the most 'unethical' and possibly illegal life hacks that you really shouldn't feel good about performing. Here are the best bits.
Those who can, can't always teach. When you've studied a skill for years, it can be hard to break down your steps and remember what new learners don't know. Which is how you end up writing instructions like the above, which Reddit user kdesh titled "Step 1. Threaten the coconut with a machete".
For as much as everyone wants to fall in love (and get laid), first dates have a pretty bad rap. Probably because they're such a high-risk, high-reward proposition; they have the potential to either fill your life with magic or make you regret ever leaving the house. There's no way to guarantee chemistry (or even basic human courtesy) between you and your first date, but you can at least plan a good location to find out if you hate each other.
Hotel living is sweet, especially if you leave room in your luggage for all the mini-shampoos and towels that come with it. Too bad that taking a break from your apartment for a night is so expensive you'd be better off just buying expensive shampoos and towels. That is, unless you can learn to scam your way into a free home away from home in a way that's totally legal.
In 2005, two recent university graduates launched a website with a simple idea: They would let the online community decide what was newsworthy and what wasn't by letting them post their own links and information. They'd then allow the site's users to vote on those posts, with the idea that the very best would rise to the top.
