How Reddit developed its toxicity problem

Reddit can be a place to follow very distinct topics that are well curated but there's one impression that seems to be ubiquitous from those who land on Reddit. It's pervasive toxicity.

Jennifer's journey

Jennifer is a lover of dogs and she's got a new puppy and she has decided to make her first reddit account. She wants to share a picture of her puppy with others so she goes to the subreddit she frequents often to post a picture.

When she tries to post a picture, she's told she doesn't have the necessary karma.

To Jennifer, this is deeply disappointing because she had no idea what karma is. And she's felt a part of this community as a reader for a long time. But being unable to post leaves her with a sense of disappointment.

Second attempt

Nevertheless, she builds up the courage to post to a different subreddit, which apparently doesn't have the same minimum karma requirement filters.

Putting this picture of her dog out there is her first step at entering a brand new community.
What Jennifer doesn't know is that she has had the courage to do something many people have wanted to do but very few have had the courage to do. To post. In fact, for every 99 people on Reddit, likely only one posts.

Few people have the courage to be exposed to the potential social judgment of putting a little piece of them out there in the world through a post.

Backlash

Jennifer begins to get her first comments about how cute her dog is. Her heart warms with each one. To make the photo look as good as possible, she had used her phone's portrait mode. It made her puppy stand out perfectly by blurring the background, giving the whole picture a soft, professional-looking glow.

But then suddenly, everything changes. The editing was a mistake.

One comment asks a simple question. "This photo looks a little too professional. Where is this from?"
Then another answers with absolute certainty. "I knew it. The lighting is too perfect. This is a stolen image from a magazine or a blog."
Suddenly, the post about her dog becomes a bandwagon of people attacking her. Her phone buzzes again and again with notifications of their hatred.
"OP is just another pathetic karma farmer stealing content."
"Imagine being so desperate for attention you have to pretend a stock photo puppy is yours. So sad."
"Look at the weird blurry edge around the dog's ear. That's a classic sign of a bad photoshop job to hide a watermark."
"I'm reverse image searching this. I'll find the original photographer."
"Don't even try to deny it. You're caught. Just delete the post and your account."
"This is why I don't trust any post on this site anymore. It's all fake."
"You're a liar and a content thief."

Jennifer's eyes fill with tears. Her stomach churns. She looks down at the actual puppy sleeping on her lap, the same one in the picture. Her joy from moments before has curdled into a hot, sick feeling of shame for something she never did. The strangers weren't just wrong. They were cruel. And they were so sure of themselves.

Jennifer, being deeply heartbroken by a crime she didn't commit, quickly takes down the post.

Jennifer, in her moment of vulnerability, has learned an important lesson. To get along on Reddit requires more than just being innocent. It requires leaving no room for misinterpretation.

Creation of a culture

But why are people on Reddit like this?

Why are they so skeptical and willing to mistrust others?
Why do they so easily dogpile on other people?

A culture of fear

Everyone on Reddit has gone through their own negative experience, usually at the time in which they felt most vulnerable, their first post.

Not wanting to relive that fear, individuals seek to become a paragon of the skepticism that is pervasive in Reddit. By being its paragon, they hide themselves in the crowd and ensure that they won't be attacked next time.

But how did the culture of skepticism start in the first place?

Anonymity

Everyone on Reddit is anonymous by default, therefore, anyone could be a:

Bot just trying to get karma so it can sell the account
An individual secretly trying to promote their business (Reddit is remarkably non-commercial)
A foreign agent trying to push a hidden political agenda.

This puts everyone on guard against potential ulterior motives.

Anonymity also leads to people acting without a conscience, since there is no accountability.