As tough as it is to admit, like many others, I'm a slave to social media. A lot of my time is spent on my phone aimlessly browsing through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. I use those social media sites in the same way most others do, but I also spend a decent amount of time on a site slightly less traveled: Reddit.

Attribution link: http://www.zalewskifamily.net/reddit-for-genealogy...

For those who don't know, Reddit is a "social news" site founded in 2005 by two students at the University of Virginia that combines aspects of social media with aspects of discussion forms. It's completely free to use Reddit, and creating an account isn't even required to view the site's content. People who visit Reddit without creating a free account are known as "lurkers." Those that do choose to create a free account, however, are able to participate in the Reddit experience. Although Reddit is generally a known name to most, a lot of people choose not to use it because they don't understand how unique and incredible participation in Reddit can be. So what exactly is the Reddit experience?

The Reddit experience starts with the creation of an account and the choosing of a name. Most people choose something fun and random, something along the lines of "Live4PizzaMemes" or really anything. This name appears on all of the user's posts and comments. From there, users are encouraged to seek out and join specific discussion forums amongst the site known as subreddits. There are thousands of subreddits available, and the user can join or leave all the subreddits that they want. Subreddits can be found for TV shows, movies, sports teams, hobbies, business advice and more. There's even a subreddit for The Odyssey Online. Subreddits can be searched for by typing in /r/ and then the subject. Some examples include /r/TheWalkingDead, /r/Showerthoughts, /r/nfl, and /r/Songwriters.

Attribution link: http://marketersguidetoreddit.com/how-to-find-subr...

Now for the fun part. Within these subreddits, users are able to post content and leave comments in a style similar to a discussion forum. The content and comments are visible to everyone who visits a particular subreddit. In /r/Songwriters, users post recordings or lyrics of original songs, and users can comment on these songs to give feedback. In /r/nfl, users post content related to the National Football League, and the comment section is an array or thoughts, snarky comments, jokes, and opinions. When a user posts or comments within a subreddit, other users are able to "upvote" or "downvote" their post or comment. These terms basically mean like and dislike. For each upvote, a user gains one point of karma, and a user loses one point of karma for each downvote. What exactly is karma?

Attribution: Steven Giller (screenshot taken from Reddit.com in /r/TheOdysseyOnline)

Karma is the point system that Reddit uses to (hopefully) reward users for generating interesting content. Within each user's profile, there is a calculator that accumulates all of the likes and dislikes the user has across the entire Reddit website, and separates the karma between posts (post karma) and comments (comment karma). A user's current karma totals are displayed on their profile. Users with higher karma are more well-respected in the Reddit community, and have bragging rights as well. At the end of the day though, they can just be considered as "useless internet points." Still, Reddit's karma system allows for some fun and interesting friendly competition.

Attribution: Ink Tank Media

Attribution link: https://inktankmedia.fi/how-to-get-karma-on-reddit...

I've been a Reddit user for over three years now, and I've gotten more out of it than all of the other social media sites combined. Although I don't post and comment as much as I used to, I use Reddit to share my music, keep up with what's going on in sports, get advice on computers and technology, and find something for a good laugh. When I have a question about almost anything, I ask it via a post in a fitting subreddit, and allow Reddit users to answer the question for me. It's way more effective than looking for answers on a generic search engine, and I have so much more knowledge than I used to because of Reddit.

I use Reddit and I'm proud. It's true that many people refer to it as the "hipster" site, and many don't want to take the time to learn how it works, but in defense of Reddit, it really is a social media experience like no other. Just about everyone I know who took the time to give it a chance ended up finding it to be extremely fun and useful. I encourage everyone to give Reddit at least one try, even if it's just in the lurker's capacity.