I’ve known for a long time that I have a bit of a Reddit problem. When I need a quick mental palette cleanser during the workday, I hop on over to the site to see if there’s a new adorable video on r/goldenretrievers, an opportunity for quick, satisfying moral outrage on r/amitheasshole, or a fresh theory on r/yellowjackets. This year, as my husband and I desperately searched for a house, I spent an awful lot of time on r/RealEstate and r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer. Sometimes I have a couple of Reddit tabs open at once. Clicking over there on my laptop, or opening the Reddit app if I’m on mobile, is basically muscle memory at this point. I think of it like a quick calorie-free snack.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementI certainly never wanted that time quantified. But Thursday night, I clicked on something I’d been avoiding for a week: my Reddit Recap. It’s Reddit’s first attempt to do something like Spotify Wrapped, Facebook Year in Review, or other similar social media features that will offer you a cheerily packaged look back at the data they collected on you over the past 12 months. Facebook’s has always been a yawn for me. (I don’t use it much.) Spotify’s delights me. But Reddit Recap is just horrifying, an accounting of (to twist the social media metric) time poorly spent—to the point that it makes me want to resolve to use the site less in 2022. Maybe not what you want your users to feel when you’ve just announced you’re filing to go public.
AdvertisementAdvertisementReddit, of course, is vulnerable to the privacy criticisms that have dogged Spotify Wrapped since it launched: that year-in-review features take data that platforms never should have collected from you and turn them into marketing campaigns. I get these concerns. I also don’t really feel them. I don’t mind Spotify collecting data about my musical taste—in fact, I want it to so that it can suggest new artists I may enjoy. I also find some value in Spotify Wrapped making clear the kinds of data that the company collects on me in order to sell targeted ads. So my objections to Reddit Recap aren’t really privacy-based. I know these sites collect data on me. That’s the bargain I’ve struck as a user.
AdvertisementAdvertisementBut the difference between Spotify Wrapped and Reddit Recap is in how we use the two platforms. For me, Spotify is background noise. I listen to music while working, while driving, while doing stuff around the house, while chatting with friends and family. Time spent listening to music is never wasted. My Spotify Wrapped might get me a couple of cringey moments—wow, I listened to one BTS song a lot—but in a way that gives me a tiny thrill: This is me. We all love to think that our own music taste is so quirky, and Spotify Wrapped quantifies that.
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Reddit—that’s a different story. Time spent on Reddit is often enjoyable, but sometimes I get stuck in an infinite scroll, hunting listlessly for a good thread to fall into. It’s much like when you find yourself spending 30 minutes looking for the perfect thing to stream on Netflix: unsatisfying, peppered with a bit of self-loathing (why can’t I just pick something? What is wrong with me?). My Reddit Recap really captured those mindless hours I spent looking at my home screen, waiting for something juicy to pop up. The second of about a dozen images presented to me by my Reddit Recap was this:
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementA quick search on Twitter shows … yeah, this is more bananas than the average person. I feel ashamed sharing it here. Because each banana captures a little bit of time I could have spent doing something else—reading a good book or piece of long-form journalism, cleaning something. Hell, staring at a wall would have been better for my vision. I don’t even like bananas.
AdvertisementBut god help me, the bananas weren’t as bad as this one:
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementTwo hundred hours? Two hundred hours? On Am I the Asshole? Clearly, I’m getting too much satisfaction from reading people who have probably made stuff up get reamed out on Reddit. (I definitely sort by “asshole” flair sometimes.) Another screen that attempts to categorize your use on the site— some people received “Diamond Hands” for hanging on investment subs, or “Equip Armor,” which seems to be cosplay-related—called me a “Moral Compass,” again because of Am I the Asshole. Just humiliating. In 2022, I have to cut back. At least I’m not ashamed of those 49 hours on r/RealEstate at least—we did successfully get a house in the end, and lurking on r/RealEstate offered me both some useful advice and a semiproductive outlet for anxiety.
AdvertisementAnother tile congratulates me on “time well wasted”—specifically with 947 views of RPAN, or Reddit Public Access Network, for livestreaming. It launched in 2019. I can assure that I maybe, maybe intentionally clicked on RPAN a half-dozen time this year and there were always puppies involved. The other 940 or so (seriously?) views were absolutely unintentional as I scrolled through the homepage—so now we’re capturing time I wasted on things I didn’t even want to view.
AdvertisementAdvertisementOther parts of the Recap are fine. Yes, I did join r/assholedesign and r/horror this year. No shame there. I did ask a question that got few dozen upvotes on r/CleaningTips, thank you for noticing.
But then we end on this note and I’m … baffled.
Advertisement AdvertisementAdvertisementNo, I do not want to join r/REBubble—a sub for those who are convinced we are in a real estate bubble. Again, I just bought my first house. Over the past several months I have occasionally dared to venture over there in the middle of the night, when I can’t sleep. That’s only for very special occasions when I want to torture myself, not for every day.
AdvertisementAdvertisementNo, I do not want to read r/UpliftingNews—need I say more?
And I had to visit r/AskBattleStations to figure out what the hell it is—a sub for requesting advice about desk setups. I’m sure there are many people who enjoy that (about 28,600, it seems), but certainly not for me, so this tile was totally useless.
Reddit Recap has taken the unsettling parts of Spotify Wrapped and made them worse. I thought my quick little visits to Reddit were like snacks—but apparently I’ve been bingeing on some incredibly unhealthy foods all this time, which would be fine if I had actually enjoyed them.Thanks, Reddit Recap, for letting me know it’s time to cut back.
Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
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