Besides the upvote system, the site was home turf for the “rationalist” facts-and-logic type movement of the 2010s which created a culture of debating every type of idea no matter how stupid or immoral.
This created a very easy to troll culture, because redditors will type 5 paragraphs to answer someone who told them to suck their nuts like it’s their high school debate club or something.
There’s gotta be other factors, but the right-wing (lack of) moderation, karma & downvote system, anonymity leading to zero stakes for trolls, and horrible site culture certainly don’t help. I add site culture because lemmy is a reddit clone yet some instances are more awful than others.
Not completely, but it may be a factor (“may” being the operative word here, of course). But yeah, site culture also has something to do with it and maybe the adminship as well.
Plus there are a lot of subs that lend themselves to people who believe they’re mega informed experts in a given topic. Being challenged on that topic triggers them and they’re already online where they can quickly start googling random articles and shit that support their arguments
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Every thing on Reddit turns into an argument.
My question is: what social media dynamics and site design is causing this? I’m actually genuinely curious.
Besides the upvote system, the site was home turf for the “rationalist” facts-and-logic type movement of the 2010s which created a culture of debating every type of idea no matter how stupid or immoral.
This created a very easy to troll culture, because redditors will type 5 paragraphs to answer someone who told them to suck their nuts like it’s their high school debate club or something.
Wow, didn’t know.
There’s gotta be other factors, but the right-wing (lack of) moderation, karma & downvote system, anonymity leading to zero stakes for trolls, and horrible site culture certainly don’t help. I add site culture because lemmy is a reddit clone yet some instances are more awful than others.
I serously think the site design has psychological effects that we don’t know about.
Yes, almost certainly. But other site designs don’t prevent awful behavior either so I don’t think it’s completely down to site design.
Not completely, but it may be a factor (“may” being the operative word here, of course). But yeah, site culture also has something to do with it and maybe the adminship as well.
Upvotes and downvotes put you into a competitive mode of interaction, I think.
Downvotes are extra harsh on this, because it’s a miniature equivalent of being booed on stage.
Plus there are a lot of subs that lend themselves to people who believe they’re mega informed experts in a given topic. Being challenged on that topic triggers them and they’re already online where they can quickly start googling random articles and shit that support their arguments