Do you think this subreddit is representative of the uk?
Posted by Thesleepingpillow123@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 120 comments
Like do you think it's a good sample. I doubt so cus it seems its more one age predominant age group and class group but hard to say. What do you think.
Rocky-bar@reddit
I'm interested to know which class group you think is the predominant one?
Thesleepingpillow123@reddit (OP)
I was think middle class, some lower class.
Competitive_Art_4480@reddit
Lower?
Thesleepingpillow123@reddit (OP)
Just as in lower income bracket. Everyone is valuable.
TheBlueDinosaur06@reddit
Yeah I guess he's questioning it because people tend to say working class as opposed to lower class which is probably a bit demeaning lol (but I guess it's a logical thing to say)
Brichals@reddit
Have a degree, minimum wage office jobs, renting class.
Rocky-bar@reddit
That seems like a small niche, having a degree AND minimum wage, like a class of people who apparently wasted several years of their life!
Brichals@reddit
Way too many people have degrees and it's driven wages down for jobs like that.
ahoneybadger3@reddit
Whey I'm an outlier. I don't have the degree.
Mother always said I'd become something.
Rocky-bar@reddit
My school teachers always reckoned I had a degree, a degree of stupidity.
Accurate_Prompt_8800@reddit
Most definitely not.
People on here for some reason all seem to be incapable of making simple life choices, decisions or social interactions without consulting Redditors here.
Sonchay@reddit
Add to this a very peculiar view on relationship dynamics. Anything other than what I would describe as "simping" (not a word I would ever use offline) is treated as abuse
Competitive_Art_4480@reddit
The most telling subject that shows how different British Reddit is to the population; school.
95% of Redditors hated their school days. Says a lot.
glasgowgeg@reddit
Do you agree with the concept that people are more likely to discuss very good or very bad experiences compared to bog standard experiences?
For everyone saying they hated school, there will be loads more who thought it was just fine, and just don't feel the need to comment saying that.
Competitive_Art_4480@reddit
Sure, bad experiences are more visceral but every single time this gets brought up it's only ever folk with poor memories of school. Whenever it's another subject it's a much more even spread of good and bad. Other people have clearly noticed this trend, it's certainly not just me.
cgknight1@reddit
I am indifferent about school so barely remember it and I wouldn't be alone in that so not much to say about it on school threads.
glasgowgeg@reddit
I ask again, if you went to a restaurant and the meal arrived a mess and was undercooked, would you be more or less likely to leave a review compared to it being bang average, no issues, but also nothing special?
Competitive_Art_4480@reddit
I'll say it again....
Other subjects manage to have s much wider range of positive and negative opinions.....
glasgowgeg@reddit
You can say it as many times as you want, but I'm still waiting on an answer to my question.
Competitive_Art_4480@reddit
Iv answered and you've refused to acknowledge my counterpoint.
Have a good un pal.
glasgowgeg@reddit
You didn't actually answer, you've evaded it 3 times.
You said bad experiences are more visceral, but that only answered the first question I asked you, not the follow-up.
Accurate_Prompt_8800@reddit
Yeah. I was a lurker / non user for like 3 years, only started using it to make comments and post this year and now I’ve realised a lot of things which just don’t align with the lives of me and my peers growing up.
I think being 24, it’s good I didn’t discover Reddit and these subs earlier because it’s so easy to get caught up in the hive mind that is Reddit. I had my grievances with school but it’s still one of the happiest times of my life. I think reading some stuff here it would be so easy to think about the negatives, especially as impressionable as I was when younger.
glasgowgeg@reddit
Was school specifically the happiest time of your life? Or was it that you had little to no responsibilities, and could spend time with your friends, but you happened to also be at school at that time?
School for me was fine and decent enough, It wasn't awful, but equally it wasn't the happiest time of my life. 24 years old, you're still relatively young, but if you're in your 30s or 40s and you still think that school was one of the happiest times of your life, that's a bit depressing.
Accurate_Prompt_8800@reddit
I said ‘one of’ (did you not read it?) and I look back at it fondly. Yes obviously having no responsibilities and being carefree leads into it, plus the fact that I had opportunities to go on great trips near and far, meet people I’m still close with today.
Your comments are exactly part of why Reddit is an echo chamber, because God forbid I have a positive opinion about my schooling. I’m very well adjusted socially, and happy in my current life so not sure why you think it’s sad… keyboard warriors will be keyboard warriors I guess.
glasgowgeg@reddit
I did read it, and I explicitly said "one of" in my reply. You've clearly not read my reply properly.
I'm not saying it's bad that you had a positive experience of school, go back and read the comment properly.
Competitive_Art_4480@reddit
I feel very similarly to you. I'm a little bit older, 30, and certainly had some poor experiences at school but overall I look upon those days very fondly.
sshiverandshake@reddit
You said exactly what I would've written but missed one thing - a lot of the people on this sub have excessively twee notions of Britishness, e.g.: harping on about tea / tea bags, strong opinions about how to make a Full English or scones and the obsession with queuing.
The majority of regular people just don't give that much of a shit. It feels like some people on this sub ham up the British act for the non-Brit visitors.
AlabamaShrimp@reddit
This one really gets on my tits. Who gives a shit about any of those things!? It's the same with the stupid roast dinner as if it was the most amazing thing, it's meat and veg that's it!
Hate_Feight@reddit
Yeah! I hate tea! (Jokingly said)
(In all honesty I do hate tea, and get VERY weird looks when I tell anyone irl, or online. The roast dinner and full English is something people discuss until the cows come home, because it's non-confrontational and very personal)
Accurate_Prompt_8800@reddit
For sure. Also there are so many immigrants to this country over the years (my parents being some) that in the big cities especially these ideas of ‘Britishness’ are completely inaccurate to how people actually behave.
You can’t express an opinion that differs from the Reddit norm without getting downvotes. Things like how you wash up your dishes or if you have a shower in the morning or evening and how often etc are all topics of contention as well. I often view these threads with amusement…
sshiverandshake@reddit
Totally agree, getting the tube anywhere at rush hour you'd think no one in the UK knew how to queue. Appreciate that London is a bit of an outlier, though...
Another quirk is how you can express the exact same opinion on different days / threads and receive the opposite reaction, e.g.: the ULEZ zone, saying something positive about large dog breeds / large trucks or the Royal Family. It really depends on how the hivemind feels at any given moment.
Accurate_Prompt_8800@reddit
Yeah, I’ve had opinions that got me upvotes on one day, and downvotes the next.
And don’t get me started on the Tube haha…
glasgowgeg@reddit
That reason largely being that this subreddit is called AskUK.
The basis of the subreddit is asking people questions, you will therefore get a disproportionate number of people asking questions compared to the average person.
Equally, if you were to go to a tech support subreddit for iPhones, you'd see more people reporting broken/defective devices than actually occur.
sshiverandshake@reddit
Agreed that it's an Ask subreddit but some of the questions are fucking astounding, e.g.:
glasgowgeg@reddit
None of the top 25 questions currently on the subreddit are anything like that, you're cherrypicking questions that are likely being removed, or ommitting context from the question.
"I have workmen over how often should I offer them tea?" could be entirely reasonable for someone who's only just moved to the UK from another country and isn't used to the custom, for example.
sshiverandshake@reddit
Well it would make sense that the mods are removing them otherwise this sub would be inundated by petty questions that always have the same answer (have you tried communicating?).
I get that some people may have learning difficulties, but how did everyone manage before internet forums? They would have had to use their initiative.
glasgowgeg@reddit
What are you whinging about then if they're being removed?
sshiverandshake@reddit
Well coming back to the comment you were replying to:
Totally agree with OP, I've seen some of those questions.
glasgowgeg@reddit
Same, after a quick look at your post history in this subreddit.
Accurate_Prompt_8800@reddit
Nothing wrong with that, but you get some posts saying
‘I’m coming to London can someone tell me what to see’
Or
‘I’m getting on public transport, which seat should I sit in if there’s someone sat in my usual seat?’
And to be honest, some of these questions violate the sub rules which is why they get removed so quickly. No one is saying don’t ask questions but in my day to day life I never see these questions asked.
glasgowgeg@reddit
Tourism isn't listed in the rules as a disallowed subject, so there's nothing wrong with that question.
It would be more prudent to ask specifically in the London subreddit or search first, but tourism isn't a disallowed topic.
You're complaining about people asking questions though. If you don't like them, hide the post or downvote/report if you think they break the rules.
Elite-Priaprism@reddit
How can you not know what to see in London. Even if you aren't aware of the many major tourist attractions there - just Google it. Or, just search this sub for the other 50 times the very same question was asked.
glasgowgeg@reddit
I said that in my comment you just replied to.
Elite-Priaprism@reddit
But you also said 'there's nothing wrong with that question' as it's not against the rules. That is correct, but the people asking these questions don't want to know the answer, they just want upvotes and a modicum of attention.
glasgowgeg@reddit
Yes, and then if you kept reading I gave suggestions on what they could've done instead, like asking in the appropriate regional subreddit, or searching the subreddit for when it was asked previously.
It's like you just stopped reading as soon as you got to the end of the first sentence of my comment.
Dayglo777@reddit
Agree totally with this and to add that what we describe as ‘the left’ is comprised of people who are highly emotional and irrational people who appear to have low IQ’s and life experience. This is why we see the herd mentality mob pile ons from the left because they are easily led by others who have a sinister agenda. Whereas the people we describe as being on ‘the right’ are generally more pragmatic critical thinkers with a wider world experience.
OllyDee@reddit
Most studies I’ve seen claim exactly the opposite with regards to easily led/pragmatic thinkers. Which one of us is in the echo chamber?
Dayglo777@reddit
Do you care to share any of those studies?
OllyDee@reddit
I’ve not saved them in any way so no, that’s not really possible. Perhaps being in an echo chamber myself I don’t see the equal number of studies claiming the exact opposite, or maybe I filter them out because it conflicts with my world view. Maybe you do. It’s hard to know what information published on the internet is even true. Who published the studies? Who funded them? Do they have an agenda? Did they fudge the numbers?
cryo_coreo@reddit
100%, the political stance is so left on reddit is spot on.
Agitated-Tourist9845@reddit
That’s because anyone with right wing views is purged. Reddit is an echo chamber.
CharringtonCross@reddit
Yep, it’s not a platform for free and open discussion of ideas. You have to conform to certain orthodoxies.
glasgowgeg@reddit
Nobody claims that this subreddit is, there are plenty of disallowed topics, one of which is politics.
Your political views are irrelevant in this subreddit.
HomeworkInevitable99@reddit
I gave up reading many of them. It astounds me someone can earn £150,000 a year and not be able to understand the very basics of finance.
It at least have the gumption to hire an accountant.
MeanCustardCreme@reddit
I’ve been this person, and also the kind of person to wonder the same. I’d say financial literacy is pretty poor across the UK in general. For me, I went from poverty to high earner over a relatively short period, probably down to a series of events/decisions that went in my favour. It’s honestly pretty difficult to wrap my head around finance, although r/UKPersonalFinance has been extremely helpful.
I see both sides: how it seems unfathomable that a high earner might feel hard done by, but also how mental the tax system can get, and the weird way that at a certain income, it’s as if people are deincentivised to earn more. On the other hand I see many high earners with an insane misunderstanding of what poverty looks like.
tradandtea123@reddit
Along the lines of I'm 22 and earn £150,000 a year with £2 million in savings. Is this a good wage and can I afford a Cornish pasty once a month.
Accurate_Prompt_8800@reddit
Yes, it makes me wonder if such posters are even telling the truth.
It’s very easy to build up a story of yourself online, especially on anonymised social media like Reddit.
I’ve seen my fair share of stories and posts which just don’t add up when you look at post history.
It’s quite easy for easily impressionable people to take all these things as gospel and compare themselves to the lives of others when in reality, it’s just not representative. Talking to people offline and having real conversations will give a much more accurate view of things.
Thesleepingpillow123@reddit (OP)
That's actually very true tbh.
tradandtea123@reddit
I agree with most of that. No idea if people are white though, I've barely ever seen a poster describe themselves as white, and stating they were black/ Asian etc for no reason would be a bit odd.
PsychopopMagician@reddit
You basically said what I wanted. If reddit is indicative of anything, it's a particular subset of males. Not even all males, of all ages, of all jobs, of all political leanings. Nevermind being a good representation of the UK as a whole.
I empathize a lot with a lot of those types of internet users, I was very similar when I was a younger man. Now that those years are two decades behind me though, I realise just how out of touch insular people can be with the rest of the country.
Sadly you can't sit on a forum with like-minded people are 'theorize' about how the world is or what the people in it must think. It never quite matches up to going outside and talking to people.
dibblah@reddit
Honestly, the Internet has always been like that. Fifteen years ago nobody would believe I was a woman, because "girls don't use the Internet". Or if they did believe you you got "tits or gtfo".
There are definitely female dominated spaces online, even on reddit (not the ones that say they're for women, but a lot of the crafty ones are), but on a "general" subreddit, same as on general message boards back in the day, most people seem to be male. There's an assumption that you're always a man until proven otherwise.
laaldiggaj@reddit
My favourite question is "I've been invited to a "pub". How shall I sit down once I get in there?"
Accurate_Prompt_8800@reddit
By avoiding eye contact and drawing attention to yourself, or you’ll get a tummy ache.
BrieflyVerbose@reddit
Users are disproportionately male, white, young, middle class / high earners (or struggling on a minimum wage salary, no in between) / working in IT or tech.
Or... simply liars. I understand I'm being negative here, but it wouldn't surprise me if there were more liars than people like this.
Accurate_Prompt_8800@reddit
I totally agree. On an anonymised platform like this it’s really easy to build up a life and an image of yourself, especially if you’re dissatisfied with your own life, reading about others’ successes (even if lies themselves) creates this self perpetuating cycle…
inamessandcrisis@reddit
i wouldn’t say young most tend to be between 30-40
SoggyWotsits@reddit
Reddit in general is really not representative of average humans!
lalalaladididi@reddit
It's the Internet.
The Internet is not the real world. It's not real people.
It's not representative of anything but the Internet
PsychopopMagician@reddit
More than ever the internet is absolutely real people, and things done on the internet absolutely impact real life.
I agree with you otherwise though. It is absolutely not representative of the 'real world'. You'll learn a lot about what kinds of people think or do online, only to talk to those people in real life and learn Reddit (as an example) was WAY off.
lalalaladididi@reddit
Yes what happens on the Internet does impact real life.
I counselled and treated young people and minors who were victims of cyber bullying.
I fixed them in a couple of sessions.
However Nobody is real on the Internet. Real people are those you can see and touch.
The way many people behave on the Internet wouid land them in jail or the psychiatric ward.
Unfortunately too many see the Internet as real.
I'd like to assure people that it isn't.
Turbulent_Ebb9589@reddit
I'm on a new account, but have been lurking and occasionally posting here for years.
I find its views on having children to be out of step with the majority of the UK (in favour of not having them).
And some of the comments regarding people indulging in 'expensive' things (notably: car finance; new build houses; takeaways) often range from the snobby, to the downright ridiculous. I don't think the wider UK gives as much of a toss how other people spend their money, or about other people's tastes.
Qrbrrbl@reddit
There's definitely a lot of frugality Olympics in here over who can spend the least money. God forbid you want to spend your money on something you like, and if you use finance to purchase a big ticket item you might as well just nail yourself to a cross ready for your impending crucifixion.
Accurate_Prompt_8800@reddit
There’s somehow an inability to realise that people have differing incomes and can afford different things, and that ultimately people can choose to spend their money however they like.
Something like central heating for example, you get slated for wanting your thermostat above 16C, getting labelled as wasteful and ‘your energy bill must be sky high!’
DeadStopped@reddit
“You spend £20 a month? On a phone? I got one from PlipPlop Mobile for 73p every 8 years”
Tigertotz_411@reddit
You never really know, you could be talking to anyone. A lot of it will be bots.
Reddit's (and all social media's) models are based on engagement, posts are structured in such a way that you see controversial comments first, that lends some unearned authority to the opinions, authority that isn't earned, it just helps reddit make money.
I think a lot of people have too much time on their hands and this is their outlet for trying to make sense of a chaotic world. I don't blame them. It amplifies the anxiety and uncertainty because your worldview is shaped by a group of opinions of probably similarly minded people without context to determine whether you should take them seriously.
Real life is less black and white than the internet, and reddit in general. The internet is mathematical and relies on rules and predictions. People want answers, but those answers are so rarely straightforward.
Rocky-bar@reddit
I think nearly everyone on Reddit is male, so very unrepresentative of the UK!
welsh_cthulhu@reddit
You can't be serious? Surely?
Reddit is largely a centre-left liberal echo chamber populated by college/uni-educated technologically aware people. This is by no means representative of the UK as a whole.
Also, UK Reddit tends to massively shit on the UK from a great height, mostly down to people's dissatisfaction with how things have turned out for them individually, rather than any valid reason to critcise UK society as a whole. People tend to deflect and blame whoever is in government when they aren't earning the money they want to earn, or living the life they want to live.
The UK is a great place to live, and has been for decades.
Competitive_Art_4480@reddit
What surprises me, is how much the working class gets shit on by left leaning reddit. many talk a good talk but it doesn't take much for the vitriol to escape.
Ron-Dangerfield@reddit
Any post about tradesman was the eye opener for me
Competitive_Art_4480@reddit
Yeah that's one of the bad ones for sure. Half of the posters hate them for making more money and half are happy just to throw stereotypes and see what sticks.
Been downvoted even in this post for pointing out someone probably shouldn't say lower class
Ranoni18@reddit
Tbh most countries on Reddit shit on themselves. I first learned that when I went on German subreddits and saw how every other post was from Germans saying how Germany is shit, has declined, has no identity anymore, should repent for historic crimes, each city saying it's a shithole, hating on their capital city Berlin etc. I was like wow, so this isn't just a UK Reddit thing! I've since seen this mentality on countless other countries subreddits too. So it seems to be a Reddit thing to hate your country and constantly point out all its faults and ignore the good. Reddit has a pretty depressing outlook in general honestly.
welsh_cthulhu@reddit
I totally agree. Honestly, it's fucking ridiculous. It really is. There's this pervasive, collective national self-loathing going on, and it's a bizarre thing.
fiddly_foodle_bird@reddit
Not even slightly, nowhere on Reddit it, nor any other social media site. Too vulnerable to brigading and astroturfing to ever be so, as well.
PresentationEither19@reddit
I like this subreddit more than I like the outside, so probably not. I wish the UK was more like this 😆
Beanruz@reddit
No.
It's full of idiots which can't choose between black or white knickers
And people earning 700k wfh 1 day a week.
Qyro@reddit
Not even remotely. Reddit is full of introverts who are quiet and don’t want to be disturbed. There’s a whole country of extroverts out there who are too busy socialising to be on Reddit all the time.
idontlikemondays321@reddit
Somewhat. I think Reddit is probably more of a mix than people believe. We aren’t all on very high wages or struggling to live. These are just the people more likely to post their own circumstances as they want to boast/need help.
huskydaisy@reddit
I'm pretty sure this sub has done surverys before for demographics. But no, even if we had an incredibly even split across age range/ethnicity/gender/orientation/etc it's still only going to be a representation of people in the UK who use reddit.
MoaningTablespoon@reddit
No. If you only followed this subreddit everyone was gonna go down in flames during the racial riots and in reality it was only a few blokes causing trouble.
mmm790@reddit
I would argue that the vast majority of the population does not have the time or desire to be commenting on Reddit, so no I would say that this subreddit is not representative of the UK.
knight-under-stars@reddit
It may even be the case that the majority of the population don't even know what Reddit is.
connorcarson@reddit
100% out of all my friends I'm the only one to use it, while half of them have heard of it, while the other half have no idea it exists.
MindTheBees@reddit
Taking it one step further, the small portion of my friend group that do actually use it are all in similar white collar jobs and arguably similar personalities to me, which is a bit of a sad realisation.
pikantnasuka@reddit
Not even close.
bars_and_plates@reddit
Reddit is not designed in such a way as to allow for representation.
The issue is that the voting system is majority based. If 51% of people upvote a post and 49% downvote it then it doesn't exist, and over time people start to think "er, wait, what's this nonsense, this isn't like my experience of the real world" and so you end up with these hyper polarised subreddits on every issue.
FinalEdit@reddit
Hahhaa fuck no!
No social media is representative of any country.
GlueSniffer53@reddit
As a non Brit I've found people here much more rude than IRL Brits who seem to be very polite/kind even if they're not always jolly.
But then again, most people on the internet aren't as nice because of the anonymity it provides, so this might be true for all countries.
FinalEdit@reddit
So in summary, your experiences of people online are not representative of the wider country?
Agreeable_Fig_3713@reddit
No. I think it’s probably more representative of England - middle to south. It’s definitely not representative of the whole of the UK.
mr-seamus@reddit
God I hope not.
Allstar13521@reddit
Not even slightly
original_oli@reddit
It's more representative of the UK than the rest of Reddit is of yankland, but that's an extraordinarily low bar.
Sjuk86@reddit
I don’t think Reddit is a good representation of anything really. we’re all donkey brained idiots, and the other donkey brained idiots are on the other socials.
Kaiisim@reddit
Sort of? I think at least the people posting here live in this country, unlike some of the more political and news uk subreddits.
But I think it's a pretty specific demographic.
I-Skeleton@reddit
No it's Reddit
Durzo_Blintt@reddit
Absolutely not.
retyfraser@reddit
Do you think London is a good representation of UK.
No.
Not sure you are ever gonna find an answer to your question.
/s
BaBaFiCo@reddit
Not at all.
AdjectiveNoun111@reddit
Not even close
BrieflyVerbose@reddit
No definitely.
I still think we try to make each other laugh and there's definitely a lot of similarities. But this is a bit of an echo chamber (as is any social media really), although I don't think it's anywhere near as bad as say FB or Twitter.
But no, the vast majority of people I know in real life don't know what Reddit is. They may have heard of it but they don't understand it.
Ranoni18@reddit
The saying "Reddit is not real life" exists for a reason. Reddit is not a good representative of anything.
Final_Remains@reddit
To an extent, but bear in mind that reddit is by nature more generally left wing and 'guardian reader' than most of the UK so a lot of the views that get expressed here reflect that.
pissflapgrease@reddit
None of the uk subs are representative of the uk.
VolcanicBear@reddit
No.
No, it is not.
knight-under-stars@reddit
No online group is representative of the UK.
Hell I'd go further and say no online or offline single interest group is representative of the country as a whole.
iceblnklck@reddit
Absolutely not.
If you go off this subreddit, everyone is a software engineer earning 89k whilst scrolling Reddit for 16 hours a day.
Whereas I’m a wealthy landowner who stopped eating avocado for 12 days and was able to buy a house in Mayfair in no time. Much more representative really.
811545b2-4ff7-4041@reddit
No, it's missing young people, old people, technologically inept people and dare I say it.. "normal people"
OllyDee@reddit
No it’s another bubble. I think a large proportion of British Redditors work in the IT industry, or at least use a computer for their jobs. That doesn’t represent a vast number of British people, but it stands to reason that the IT literate amongst us might gravitate towards Reddit.
markhewitt1978@reddit
None of Reddit (or for that matter anything like Facebook, X, Nextdoor, whatever) is representative of the whole of society since self selection occurs.
AutoModerator@reddit
Please help keep AskUK welcoming!
Top-level comments to the OP must contain genuine efforts to answer the question. No jokes, judgements, etc.
Don't be a dick to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on.
This is a strictly no-politics subreddit!
Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.