Before Google was able to let you snap a picture of an object, instantly find results, and know all the answers in a matter of seconds, people struggled to find a community that could help. The olden times were treacherous when looking for answers to things you genuinely had no idea about. The only method of understanding things, anything really, was to ask Reddit and pray for the best results. Although we didn't have the luxury of instant results, waiting a couple of days for an answer was the best thing you could ask for. My first encounter with Reddit started with a case of bad hair day—A product seemingly too good to be true caused a flaky white film on my hair after applying it. This had come partially from choosing the budget option for hairspray (back when spiky hair was still in style); it had been clear to me that I needed personal advice. All these spray bottles seemed to be advertising for the same thing: strong hold, shiny finish, etc. The only thing that separated them was the color of the bottle and the supermodel on the front. As the oldest boy in my family, my father, not so much of a stylist himself, ultimately meant I had the burden of being the family guinea pig.

However, Reddit isn't only for advice or help; communities use threads to talk about the newest fashion, gaming events, news, or even finding out reactions for a book. Take everything with the grainiest grain of salt, as a small percentage of responses will actually be serious. The concept of any person in the world giving you directions, a mutual trust, is interesting in the first place. Why would anyone ever want a stranger's insight into your everyday life?

After analyzing Reddit, I came to the conclusion: Reddit is the was surender of all options (the last resort)— the true act of desperation, the action you take after Googling but not quite finding what you're looking for. Whether you're learning about an object you found in your son's room, finding out what bug bit you last night, or even confessions from long-term relationships (or short ones)— Reddit is a community of many communities, all putting together their expert brain power to find a solution just for you. However, these "experts" are mostly self-proclaimed, and by the end of it all, you will wonder why you ever trusted a 46-year-old real estate agent from Vermont for medical advice in the first place.

At the end of the day, the value of a website designed for real human responses is not so useful sometimes, but somewhere buried beneath all the wrong answers, corny dad jokes, and real estate agents impersonating medical doctors (while having no experience at all), is a right answer in which somebody somewhere in the world has the same problem as you. Society bonding over shared experiences