If you’re looking for a trendy new alternative to X but Bluesky, Mastodon and Threads just aren’t hitting the spot, don’t fret. The heir to the throne may have been in front of us the entire time.
According to Ofcom, Reddit is now the fastest growing social media platform in the UK, overtaking X and LinkedIn to become the fifth highest-reaching social media service among adults. Statistics from this May show that Reddit was visited by 22.9 million UK adults in May this year, compared with 22.1 million visiting X.
This comes as many netizens have decided to seek a substitute for the popular text-based social media app, whether that’s due to owner Elon Musk’s controversial new appointment to Trump’s cabinet as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), or because of the waning user experience of X, which entangles confusing membership systems with spam-heavy content feeds and bots abound.
Reddit may not be a direct replacement, but the message-board site has been quietly providing what Twitter once provided — real interactions between real people on the internet — for years. It doesn’t prioritise any kind of “verified” or famous accounts, it doesn’t take any bullshit, and it is, above all, brutally, welcomely honest.
There’s a reason it’s still going strong after all these years. Here’s how to make Reddit work for you.
1. Join hyper-relevant threads
Just as TikTok’s true value comes from whittling down the algorithm to perfectly fit your exact type of humour or vein of interest, Reddit has to be personalised to be good. If you’re an obsessive person, this will come pretty easy to you: create an account with a weird or meaningless username, then join the subreddits of your interests and hyperfixations and you’re a-go. There is no limit to the niche subreddit reach. Believe me, I’m part of a subreddit that posts about a now-defunct Norwegian teen TV series that hasn’t aired since 2017.
Moreover, Reddit positions itself as a viable refuge from an increasingly AI-infiltrated worldwide web. There’s a running joke among proficient internet dwellers that if you want to Google something and get answers from real people (instead of a Google “AI” overview, which can be incorrect, or hundreds of SEO-optimised articles that say nothing) you simply add the term “reddit” to the end of your search query on Google.
You can ask one of your subreddits a question, no matter how specific (i.e “Hello, r/Zoomies, why is my dog getting the Zoomies at 6pm?”) and receive quality, human answers based on experience. You might just have to train your Google-addled instant gratification monkeybrain to wait a little for the replies. But that can mean an hour or two, or perhaps a day for a smaller 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 critter that lives inside your brain. Like the complete opposite of Instagram.
Because it’s so anonymous (no profile pictures!), it allows people to feel like they can give real answers without any real perceived loss or gain. Reddit is not about likes in any way, though upvotes will help your comments and posts get seen, there’s no weird social rewards based programme like there is on other apps.
Because there’s no prize 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’re being brutally honest. Being kind pays off too, which is upsettingly and increasingly rare in the online social mediascape.
3. Start off as a lurker
The nice thing about Reddit as opposed to Instagram and Twitter is that you could go basically your entire life without posting anything, and no one would know. Find a few niche groups, join, observe, and just let that be your thing for a while. The internet is full of words and opinions, it doesn’t always need more.
Eventually, though, I imagine you’ll get brave enough to toss in a few likes and comments. Maybe you’ll even become a prized member of one of your strange subreddits. Maybe you’ll kinda like it.
4. No self promo, Redditors will sniff it out instantly
The reason Reddit is so reliable is because it’s harsh. 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 they are likes or followers, rewarding you for posting and contributing to the community. You may follow people like you did on Tumblr or Myspace, but followers don’t actually count for much at all in terms of the Reddit hierarchy.
Reddit also won’t prioritise any kind of “verified” or famous accounts, so you don’t have to worry about the blue tick bots or spam commenters that ruin the Instagram and Twitter comment sections.
You can post about yourself, but trying to show off in a non-wholesome way won’t be received well. This isn’t the place for you to try and plug something, and that includes your own looks. Posting pictures of yourself is uncommon unless you’re actively seeking out someone to give you constructive criticism on your Tinder profile (r/tinder) or just straight up roast you (r/roastme). Posting pictures of your pet will be more warmly received.
5. It can be a better version of Nextdoor if you use it right
As any recent user of Nextdoor knows, the app has been taken over by utter weirdos. Posts oscillate between sad cries for help by quite concerningly active neighbours to utter hogwash. Or, in London’s case, about 20 posts saying “Anyone know why there’s police tape on this road?”/”Did anyone hear about the stabbing last night?”
If you want a more enjoyable way of communicating with your fellow citymen, join r/London or various other London-specific subreddits for the kind of chats you’d actually have about the city while sitting in the pub with your mates.
Instead of weird posts about the foxes going through the bins again, you get to read poignant debates about which Lidl in central London is the biggest (jury is out on this one, the discussion is ongoing) and which pub quiz is the “most dead” i.e has the fewest other players, for a guaranteed success rate.
