It’s a bit weird and it doesn’t have to do with other atrocious stuff on that website, but I noticed this a lot.
Cats are basically the official animals of reddit, even more so than the doggos, they are literally everywhere and it’s getting annoying, it’s not just reddit either, but most of the social media, cat literally does nothing, looks at camera and they post it. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against cats, but why cats 24/7, why not some other animals like bears, monkes, crows, wolves, whales, dolphins, foxes, lizards etc? We have rodents here for example.
Idk what’s the reason for this but maybe I’m a bit biased because I like other animals more, but I’d like to know why is this, I’m interested.
I think cats are more of an internet thing in general as opposed to a specifically reddit thing.
it’s older than the internet, cat pics are as early as human civilization, and if we talk about modern era the dawn of photography already had solid cat presence included.
There was a whole website for cat memes in my teenage years. Icanhascheeseburger
Yes, is there any explanation/origin of this? Since most people I know irl either like dogs and cats equally and don’t put cats higher than other animals.
(which is weird talking coming from me who basically has a special status on a whole other level for 10 animals and dinosaurs)
Many people think that cats look cute/do cute things. When sharing images over the internet became a thing, cat pictures started becoming a thing. It really took off when Youtube appeared. Early youtube videos where either someone talking about something in front of a webcam or over a presentation, or people doing silly things and recording them. Well, the silly things category was very quickly overtaken by people sharing videos of their cats jumping around, getting distracted by lasers/toys, or being high on catnip, because it was easy and would generally get a lot of views and 5 stars (rating before the Like/Dislike buttons were introduced).
The short answer is: making likeable content centered on cats was easy and paid off.
I have no idea, sorry.
cat cute
Cat make brain dopamine printer go brrrrrrr.
Those are cute cats
silly little creatures
'Cus they’re hella cute and funny based comrades obviously.
But honestly I think it’s mostly just because they’re so damn common and a lot harder to get than other pets. Like I’ve grown up with cats and I understand their mannerisms fairly well, but then sometimes they just leave you like “??? what the hell is going on in that little brain” which makes people interpret and anthropomorphise their behaviour in funny ways.
Also imo there’s plenty of other cute animals like dogs, cows, otters, even snakes, etc on r/awww and others" just most people don’t have a snake or find them that cute/appealing.
Otters are such cuties also, and most people don’t get me for liking snakes for some reason
Snakes are cool and remind me of cats a lot actually (except no crazy zoomies). They are even, how do i put it, like fluffy class pleasure to pet, but not literally fluffy.
Otters are arguably more adorable but they lack the other two most important criteria. We cannot own otters and they are not easy to care for. Thus pictures are significant less common.
Doggos?
Dog require more work and also loose some of their “cuteness factor” as the age. Cats are easier to care for and retain more of their “cuteness” factor later in life. I say this as someone who loves dogs, but I do not own one because I do not have the time to dedicate to them and that’s not fair to the dog. So instead I have 2 cats.
Humans love cats, we have for thousands of years. The Egyptians will tell you that.
Cats are cute, cats are funny, cats do dumb things, cats are extremely smart, cats make people smile.
Cats unite humanity.
(Except if you have allergies, but those people are acceptable losses)
I’m allergic to cats and just lived with it while my cat was alive.
I’d happily double the suffering to have him back.
Based
Cats purrs emit similar wavelengths as babies cries. So they cause us to take notice of them and want to care for them. They have evolved to make us love them.
That is actually cat meows, but the same point still stands. They’ve gamed the system.
also the frequency (hz) of their purr has also been shown to promote bone growth and heal fractures!
Ya it’s magic, giant cats and little ones purr at the same frequency. The bone-healing thesis needs some more research but its really damn cool if it turns out to be true.
My personal version:
Cats are the cutest animal on the planet, why wouldn’t you post them? Have you seen cats?!
But doggos, bears, rodents, foxes😭
All trumped by the almighty cat. They’re so liddle but they think they’re so tough, and then they make the cute noises
They are kind of tough. They’ve got little knives.
Not even close to bears ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ🐻
Because of three primary reasons
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They are fucking adorable at all stages of life.
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We can own them.
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Relatively easy to care for.
1 and 3 are your competitive reasons. If any animal were to meet these criteria more efficiently than a cat, and still be ownable by humans, then they would become the new masters of the internet but none do. Dogs are great but dogs take way more work. They are needy and sometimes people need to be alone and most dogs do not ever want to be away from their people. Also most dog breeds loose their adorability as they mature. Still cute sure, but does not hold onto as well as cats. In the end, for the average person that just wants a companion animal that is easy to take care of, intelligent enough to form its own personality, and can be left alone without developing crippling anxiety, cats just outperform all other animals.
Also they are the perfect pets to have into the small cubicles people are generally force to live in urban centers.
If any animal were to meet these criteria more efficiently than a cat, and still be ownable by humans, then they would become the new masters of the internet but none do
Well that’s the thing, to be ownable by humans, beside that except dogs, birds and rodents which can be owned by humans, there a lot cooler and better animals, including them:
Dogs obviously-our best friend
Bears-cute and powerful
Crows and ravens-one of the smartest
Apes-closest to us
Birds and reptiles-literal living dinosaurs
Snakes-cute, especially non-venomous ones
Rodents-cute and funny, sometimes fluffy
Orcas-most powerful and one of the smartest
Dolphins-same as orca just smol and funny
Wolves-smart and badass
Foxes-very funny
Being cool or “better” does not matter as these are not only only opinion based but irrelevant to the criteria. The internet will be most populated with images of what people own because that is what is available to them. Cats outcompete all other pets for the criteria of what makes a good, easy to cares for, and lovable pet,. Thus more people will own and become attached to them. People love posting pictures of their pets, thus cats win the internet. It’s that simple.
What about birds, hamsters/bunnies and reptiles tho? They are even easier to own.
None of these are easier than a cat to care for and none outcompete for cuteness. Bunnies are close to as cute but part of being cute for pets is also being intelligent, curious, and playful, which cats outcompete bunnies on. All of these things require cages that must be cleaned. Of the three only one of those animals can be safety potty trained, the bunny, and still it takes work to do it. A cat will use a litterbox almost instinctively. Most people don’t like owning birds majorly because of the need to clean the cage so much and that it feels cruel to cage a flying animal in general. Cleaning cages is at minimum a weekly exercise that is more work than simply scooping out soiled cat litter or just dumping out the whole bin of liter and replacing. Cages have to be washed and put back together in a manner the animal can actually live inside it. Additionally none of these can produce the same level of affection as a cat nor can be played with as easily or at all. You can train some birds to come to you, bunnies can be somewhat affectionate, neither of them match a cat. If you let a hamster out it will run away and unless you put in some serious training, probably never make it back to their cage because they are about the dumbest mammalian pet you can get.
This is not saying these are “bad” pets, but your question is why cat pictures are more prevalent than other pets and animals. This is why. They are superior pets as a whole based on those criteria. If this wasn’t the case and there was a more superior pet then that’s the pet that would prevail on the internet.
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Cats are cute and commonplace. That’s it. I doubt there’s some deeper reason.
Because cats are the best.
If Reddit was only cat pictures it would actually be a pretty nice place.
I think the posting of animal pictures is related to stress relief. But why it is cats specifically I am not sure. They are cute so there’s that. But not sure why cats and not dogs.
This. I get that, but what about doggos and hundreds of other animals that deserve attention🥺
their brains are hijacked with toxoplasmosis and that makes them like cats
2 toxoplasmosis-riddled haters saying it’s fake
Lol, as someone who became obsessed with cats after my family got two of them and I got to spend time with them, I do wonder whether that might be a contributing factor…
Yea same, I did most of the litter box cleaning and those fuckers were outdoor (NEVER DO OUTDOOR! We lost like 4 cats to cars. It’s disgusting, and also mean, I saw their personalities change after we let them out, we heard catfights, they ripped up so many birds, all because we felt bad when they tried to get out the door.)
because most people like cats
You’re choosing violence today I see
Violence🤨
I think it is an inheritanche from 9gag, IMO a lot of people from there went to reddit when the former started to die.
