How to Use Reddit, a 5-Step Etiquette Guide to the UK’s Fastest Growing Social Media Platform

If you’re looking for a trendy new alternative to X but Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads just aren’t up to the task, don’t worry. The heir to the throne may have been in front of us the whole time.

According to Ofcom, Reddit is now the fastest growing social media platform in the UK, overtaking X and LinkedIn to become the fifth most popular social media service among adults. Statistics for May show that Reddit was visited by 22.9 million UK adults in May this year, compared to 22.1 million visitors on X.

This comes as many internet users have decided to look for a replacement for the popular text-based social media app, whether due to owner Elon Musk’s controversial new appointment to Trump’s cabinet to head the Department of Defense. government efficiency (DOGE), or because of the diminishing user experience of X, which entangles confusing membership systems with spam-rich content feeds and bots abound.

Reddit may not be a direct replacement, but the messaging site has been quietly providing what Twitter once offered — real interactions between real people on the Internet — for years. It doesn’t prioritize any type of “verified” or famous accounts, it doesn’t take any bullshit, and it’s mostly brutally and honestly welcome.

There’s a reason he’s still going strong after all these years. Here’s how to make Reddit work for you.

1. Join hyper-relevant discussions

Just like TikTok’s true value comes from narrowing down the algorithm to perfectly suit your type of humor or interest, Reddit has to be personalized to be good. If you’re an obsessive person, this will be pretty simple for you: create an account with a weird or meaningless username, then join the subreddits of your interests and hyperfixations and off you go. There is no limit to the scope of the niche subreddit. Believe me, I’m part of a subreddit that posts about a now-defunct Norwegian teen TV series that hasn’t aired since 2017.

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Additionally, Reddit is positioning itself as a viable refuge from a global web increasingly infiltrated by AI. There’s a running joke among knowledgeable internet users that if you want to Google something and get answers from real people (instead of a Google “AI” preview, which may be incorrect, or hundreds of SEO-optimized articles that don’t say anything), just add the term “reddit” to the end of your search query on Google.

You can ask any of your subreddits a question, no matter how specific (e.g. “Hello, r/Zoomies, why does my dog get Zoomies at 6 p.m.?”) and receive quality, human-based responses on experience. You might just have to train your instant gratification, Google-infused monkey brain to wait a bit for answers. But that might mean an hour or two, or even a day for a small subreddit. Good things, those who wait, etc.

2. It’s faceless, so the weirder and more honest you are, the better

No one, not a single person I know, not even my boyfriend, needs to know what I comment, post, and like on Reddit. It is faceless and private, like the creature that lives in your brain. The complete opposite of Instagram.

Because it is very anonymous (no profile picture!), it allows people to feel like they can give real answers without any real perceived loss or gain. Reddit is in no way about likes, although upvotes will help your comments and posts get seen, there isn’t some weird social rewards based program like there is on other apps.

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Because there’s no reward for saying the coolest or hottest thing, it actually becomes the opposite. Being a little freak on Reddit (within reason, morally and ethically) usually implies that you are brutally honest. Being nice also pays off, which is upsetting and increasingly rare in the online social media landscape.

The great thing about Reddit, unlike Instagram and Twitter, is that you can go your whole life without posting anything, and no one will know. Find a few niche groups, join them, observe, and let that be your thing for a while. The Internet is full of words and opinions, you don’t always need more.

However, at some point I imagine you will be brave enough to add a few likes and comments. Maybe you’ll even become a valuable member of one of your weird subreddits. Maybe you’ll like it a little.

4. No self-promotion, Redditors will detect it instantly

The reason Reddit is so reliable is because it’s tough. Content creators don’t exist on Reddit. No one “wins” Reddit. Sure, Reddit’s “Karma” points exist, but they’re more like experience points than likes or subscribers, rewarding you for your posts and contribution to the community. You can follow people like you did on Tumblr or Myspace, but followers don’t really count for much in terms of the Reddit hierarchy.

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Reddit also won’t prioritize “verified” or famous accounts, so you don’t have to worry about blue check bots or spam commenters ruining Instagram and Twitter’s comment sections.

You can post about yourself, but trying to show yourself in an unhealthy way won’t be well received. This is not the place to try to hook anything up, and that includes your own appearance. Posting photos of yourself is rare, unless you’re actively looking for someone to give you constructive criticism on your Tinder profile (r/tinder) or just roast you (r/roastme). Posting photos of your pet will be more warmly received.

5. It can be a better version of Nextdoor if you use it correctly

As any recent Nextdoor user knows, the app has been taken over by some real weirdos. The messages oscillate between sad cries for help from quite worrying neighbors and total bullshit. Or, in the case of London, around twenty messages saying “Does anyone know why there are police tape on this road?” »/“Did anyone hear about the stabbings last night? »

If you want a nicer way to communicate with your fellow citizens, join r/London or various other London-specific subreddits for the kind of discussions you’d actually have about the city when you’re sitting at the pub with your friends.

Instead of weird posts about foxes scavenging through bins again, you can read poignant debates over which central London Lidl is the biggest (the jury is out on this one, the discussion is ongoing) and which pub quiz is the “deadest”. “That means he has the fewest other players, for a guaranteed success rate.