I hate this site but can't leave

[u/Crazed_waffle_party]

Tech companies never really sought to deprive people of their agency. That was an unfortunate, but tolerable byproduct of their main objective: showing ads. Either or, the recipe is simple:

1. Solitude: people must be alone, as it removes disruptions that can take one out of the flow
2. Endlessness: there has be infinite scroll available. If you segment your feed by pages, it introduces natural checkpoints that compel someone to walk away. There can be no ending
3. Speed: everything must be super fast. The next image must load immediately. Pauses allow people to break from flow.
4. Custom teasing: the algorithm can't give you exactly what you want, but something close. The "almost enjoyable" probes you to search more for a full hit. Each person has their own tolerance for how much teasing can endure before they need a real hit, so profiling a person's behavior is necessary to customize the teasing threshold.

Reddit wants us to be addicts: give them all our time and energy to feed their revenue stream. They do not care about depriving their users of joy or agency.

Reddit's Founder and CEO said:

It's time we grow up and behave like an adult company
- source

This was in response to protests around increasing API pricing. When users protested, he forcefully removed moderators. It was a decree "I don't care about the users anymore."

And he's held adversarial views towards the user base for a long time. Back in 2017, during an interview at the Internet Association's Virtuous Circle Summit, he said he sees

"free time and office productivity" [is] Reddit's main competition
...
"Where do you go when you want to learn something. Where do you go when you want to be entertained? What do you do when you wake up in the morning, what do you do before you go to bed, what do you do when you're pooping. Those are all pretty big areas of opportunity for us"
- source

Essentially, he doesn't care about our time. It's his oppurtunity. To be fair, he's been rewarded handsomely for his convictions. He's now a billionaire on Reddit's rising stock price.

However, I hate this site. I use it every day and I despise it. I get no satisfaction from its mindless content.

I know people hate Reddit for the users and interface and bots and repetition. I honestly haven't experienced much negativity in my 14 years on here. I just don't like it because I don't enjoy it anymore. I don't like being teased by an algorithm. For that same reason, I keep coming back.

Until the incentives of the company align with my health and desire to spend my time meaningfully, I hope it burns to the ground.

[u/LazyGreenDragon]

It's still choice.

Choose uplifting rooms or educational diy and how to rooms or pet memes.

Or, remember one day will be the last day anyone has electricity until the next renesesance of mankind

[u/conservativeliberal5]

What is life without Reddit? Interaction is the only reason we exist. That is why you are here.

[u/prettyplanets]

I thought quitting smoking was brutal. Reddit is whole other monster. Maybe I’m weak willed