Over the last thirty years, we’ve collectively watched various internet trends come and go. The DotCom bubble, NFTs, virtual reality, the Metaverse. Usually, it’s easy to tune them out and continue on with your life, unbothered. Not anymore.
Now, AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) have completely dominated cyberspace in less than three years. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like them or don’t want to use them – they’re unavoidable. AI is on your social media, emails, Photos app, texts, and appliances. Countless people from all walks of life are using generative AI programs to do their work for them.
The internet was supposed to help us stay connected. But these days, we feel farther apart than ever. You can never really be sure – are you talking to a human, or a bot?
In a culture where so much of our information and resources are delegated to technology, it makes sense that we’re seeking true human perspectives more than ever. Cue Reddit: one of the last spaces on the internet that feels genuinely authentic and personable.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has been around for almost as long as Google, originating in the mid-1990s as a tool for finding the best websites or blogs to answer a user’s questions. It started off fairly innocently, simply crawling through websites’ text to find relevant information and place it at the forefront of search results. For a long time, most people weren’t aware of it.
Throughout the 2010s, however, SEO began to warp the internet. Entire sites now exist just to rank higher, stuffed with clunky keywords, and often written by AI to answer a single question. You might find the top page, but it may not have the best answer.
It’s no surprise, then, that people are turning to Reddit forums for answers. No SEO, no AI, just regular people helping out other people.
On Reddit, you can find human-written, varied answers for every issue. Whether you’re looking up a niche medical problem, finding help with a piece of old technology, or trying to decide if you’re the a-hole in a situation, there’s a Reddit thread for that.
Reddit offers the perspectives of millions of people from around the world, all conversing with each other in real time. You can speak directly to artists, movie stars, doctors, engineers, and politicians with no holds barred. There are a few real names and photos, like on other social media platforms, giving it an air of anonymity that allows people to speak more freely.
SEO professionals are noticing the shift: more searches now end with “Reddit,” and Google displays more forum results on its front page. Reddit has nearly doubled in daily users over the last four years, a growth that coincides with the explosion of AI.
Reddit stands out because it feels authentic in a sea of optimized, AI-written noise. These days, firsthand experience carries more weight than credentials – but where does that lived reality end and expertise begin?
Throughout the 2000s and early 2010s, sites like Wikipedia or JSTOR were considered the best places to find reliable, fact-checked information. No site will ever be 100% accurate, but these were peer-reviewed, updated regularly, and generally unbiased places to seek out the truth.
When social media took off, it became a wrecking ball to these platforms. There was a sudden emphasis on “doing your own research,” and seemingly overnight, everyone was an expert on complex topics ranging from gender issues to geopolitical discourse or climate change statistics. People began trusting the strangers they saw preaching on YouTube or Facebook over educational, verified sources – and AI has only exacerbated the problem as it morphs into a veritable replacement for Google.
People are increasingly distrustful of once-respected sources of information, like the news, hospitals, and schools. In a for-profit world, we no longer believe that corporations or government institutions have our best interests at heart. It feels safer to use the guidance of our peers, regular citizens like us, to solve our problems. Unfortunately, they’re not always trustworthy, either.
Reddit uses a karma system that gives comments and posts an air of authenticity. Posts or replies that people like receive upvotes, placing them at the top of threads to gain more traction. Posts and replies that people dislike get downvoted, sometimes disappearing or getting deleted by moderators as a result.
This system relies on an almost herd-mentality mindset. Often, it’s not necessarily the most factually accurate comment that gets upvoted – it’s the perspective that appeals to the most people. At best, they are genuinely helpful, thoughtful replies. At worst, those perspectives can be rife with errors, mistruths, or deliberate misinformation.
When these wrong answers get pushed to the top, they may spread even beyond Reddit. ChatGPT and other AI programs mine Reddit for answers, and a growing number of researchers, journalists, and students pore through threads to find “real” insights (we’ve even done it here at Veriheal to explore Reddit’s impact on cannabis culture). Thus, the line between fact and fallacy blurs further.
Reddit feels human and trustworthy, but karma and upvotes can push mistakes as easily as they promote helpful advice. Popular opinions and beliefs become branded as expertise, so now, anyone can be an authority.
Reddit was first launched in 2005. Since then, more than 3 million subreddit groups have been created, with roughly 140,000 still active on a daily basis.
Many of these provide genuinely beneficial advice or information to users. r/ExplainLikeImFive helps people grasp complicated topics through simple explanations, while r/PersonalFinance has allowed people to better manage their money. Post any question on r/AskReddit to get a variety of interesting answers from 57 million people around the world.
But on the flip side of every well-intentioned community are hate groups and those dedicated to radicalizing the most vulnerable. They promote red-pill culture, the manosphere, racism, conspiracies, or harmful health practices disguised as wellness.
Algorithms worsen the problem: click on a conspiracy post once, and your feed floods with similar threads within minutes. What starts as curiosity (“Do you have trouble with women? Here are tips to act more manly!”) can quickly lead users down dangerous rabbit holes.
It plays on the same emotions that brought you to Reddit in the first place – seeking answers from real people – but instead of offering varied perspectives, it pushes you further into rigid ideologies.
As Reddit becomes our go-to resource for information, the harmful ideals that start in niche groups can rapidly spread into mainstream discourse, influencing public opinion, culture, and even politics.
READ: Weed and Reddit: How Does the Reddit Community Influence Cannabis Culture?
Reddit has become a reflection of our collective desire for real human perspectives. It gives us access to lived experiences and insights we can’t always find in polished articles or AI summaries. But it’s not without risks: social popularity can become viewed as the absolute truth.
However, the site isn’t inherently good or bad, just as people aren’t strictly good or bad. Like social media, Wikipedia, or YouTube, it’s a tool we can use for knowledge, interaction, and news. It’s up to us to make sure we are using it responsibly.
You’ll never lack for answers on Reddit, though you do have to approach them logically. Use Reddit, sure, but use other sources as well. Take nothing at face value. Check the facts. Find multiple answers for your question to put together an unbiased solution that works best for your needs.
The way we research, trust, and learn is changing, and Reddit is just one piece of the puzzle.
Have you ever shared some edibles between friends, only to discover that one of you is feeling nothing at all? Unfortunately, it’s more common than you think. Many people, particularly on social platforms like Reddit, report no reactions to the effects of ingested cannabis. This is often known as being “ediblocked.” Being ediblocked is a…
As of 2025, 24 U.S. states plus Washington, D.C. have legalized recreational cannabis, and 38 states have legalized cannabis in some form—including medical marijuana programs. But cannabis legalization in the United States isn’t universal. Your state determines not only if it’s legal, but also how each state defines cannabis possession, purchasing, growing, and consumption. This…
Educational only—this isn’t medical or legal advice. Everyone’s body responds differently; start low and go slow. Curious why some cannabis products make you feel “high” while others don’t? CBD (cannabidiol) and THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) are the two headline cannabinoids—and they behave very differently. THC is intoxicating and drives the classic cannabis buzz; CBD is non-intoxicating…
Your grinder’s missing—but that doesn’t mean you don’t have options for grinding down your cannabis flower. You can still get a clean, even grind using simple tools you already have at home. Kitchen gadgets, those random items in your junk drawer—there’s no shortage of clever ways to break down your cannabis bud fast. This guide…
Firearm incidents involving alcohol or other substances rise by 87.5% when hunting season starts. This points to alcohol playing a major role in gun-related accidents. A Johns Hopkins report adds to this concern, revealing that about one in three gun homicide perpetrators were drunk before committing murder, and a quarter of gun suicide victims were drunk…
Sign up for our newsletter
Learn the process in your state
All Rights Reserved Veriheal Inc. ©
Terms Privacy Policy Advertising Agreement Content Disclamer
Get your medical marijuana card today
Sign up in under 5 minutes
Start By Selecting Your State
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Puerto Rico
