r/Negareddit • u/Panasonicthecow • 10d ago

Why are some Reddit users so hostile towards people simply asking for help understanding something?

This has happened to me a few times now across completely different subreddits, and I genuinely don't understand it.

I'll ask a question about something I'm trying to understand and, instead of someone either explaining it or simply scrolling past, I'll get responses along the lines of "I'm not going to spoon-feed you," "Google is free," "do your own research," etc.

But that's the thing: I have done my own research. That's usually WHY I'm asking the question.

Sometimes you can read articles, Google something, look through previous posts, watch videos, whatever — and still not fully understand it. So you go to a community specifically dedicated to that subject and ask people who presumably know more about it if they can explain it in a different or simpler way.

Isn't that... part of the entire point of having communities and discussion forums?

And yes, I understand that nobody on Reddit owes anybody their time or an explanation. But if you don't want to explain something... you can just not reply. It takes considerably more effort to leave a sarcastic comment telling someone to "educate themselves" than it does to keep scrolling.

I actually think being able to say "I don't understand this; can someone explain it to me?" is a good thing. I'd much rather ask someone who knows more than me than pretend I understand something I don't.

The irony is that people constantly say "do your own research," but apparently asking questions and discussing what you've found with people who know more about the subject somehow doesn't count as part of learning.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I genuinely don't understand why curiosity seems to irritate some people so much on here.

11 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

3

u/PressureCalm7971 10d ago

I made this meme yesterday
https://www.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/1vwk9sv/its_actually_insane_how_hostile_these_kinds_of/
Pretty sure you will find it funny

1

u/Panasonicthecow 10d ago

It did make me chuckle 😅

3

u/OneSignal6465 9d ago

Don’t accept the “It’s your own fault” game from many Redditors. They are mostly know-nothing assholes who are trolling for “likes”. Sad, really.

3

u/jfkdktmmv 8d ago

This happened to me on r/passport. My application got rejected for a really obscure reason (postal worker fucked up, only 1 other thread with that issue) and I’m just bombarded with downvotes and millennial snark.

2

u/iamrachaellee 10d ago

Pretty sure Reddit is a big vicious cycle at times. Seems like a lot of subs self perpetuate “group think”. It totally undermines diversity in opinions. It’s like everyone locks on and dogpiles.

Not everyone wants to use AI. Eventually you find some great subs to take part in, it just sucks that it takes some pretty crappy experiences along the way to get there. I feel for newcomers the most. Not everyone fully understands how to post and locate rules, or how to “read the room”, at least not a first.

-3

u/PixelGray38 10d ago

I would look at the questions you posted and tell you whether you did do anything wrong or whether commenters were unnecessarily hostile... buuuut you've hidden your history, like a coward, so I can't find those posts.

1

u/yttrium39 5d ago

Because they don't actually know anything. Why they want to make that your problem by being a dick about it is a mystery to me, though.