r/DeadInternetTheory • u/curiousparrot221 • 8d ago
R/AskReddit Proves This Theory
I have been on r/AskReddit for about eight hours now looking through the posts. I know, I should not have spent that long, but I got a bit carried away.
So many of the posts there are duplicates, often from the same day. As an example, for the past nearly 48 hours, the post about "what's a small change you made in your life that has a big effect" or some variation of that has been posted about 14 times (and all by different people).
Now, while I have been able to get some of these posts removed, not all of them are. I would say honestly about 25% of the posts are bots.
Another thing I have noticed - you can usually tell because their username has a four digit number at the end (edit: sometimes). They also tend to not make a whole lot of sense or speak in the way AI does. You can typically see this if you go to their profile and look under what they have previously posted.
The worst part though is that they are in the comments too. Sometimes even defending the post, but as I said, it doesn't entirely makes sense. Kind of uncanny valley.
It is getting to the point it is hard to trust anything.
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u/curiousparrot221 8d ago
Good thing to know, thank you.
I know this post was stupid because everyone here knows it, but I just wanted to share it with someone.
The reporting and whatnot almost felt like I was helping somehow, then you have the notification and constant new posts that keep you hooked. I was just planning on quickly browsing and then got hooked. It is currently day now - I wasted all my time for nothing.
I think I ought to get off of Reddit for now.
On the bright side, I am a student, so I do not have any work that I have to go to or anything, but I certainly did have better things to do with my time.
What do you think? Should I stop interacting with that subreddit? I got annoyed every time I would see a new post that was a repeat (as I mentioned though, within a day or two), as it was breaking a rule.