I think it’s time for me to come clean about this. I kinda became addicted to Reddit, but most importantly, reddit stories. It became part of my routine to listen to podcasts that read reddit stories. NGL it’s really enjoyable, but there is always some people that debates if the stories are true.
Then I tried it once. I created a throwaway account and posted a made up story. It gained a lot of traction and nobody even commented about it being fake.
It was supposed to be a one time thing, but then another idea for a story pops up in my head, I create another throwaway with a temp mail and write that another story.
Overtime it became a habit. I’ve posted tens of fake stories, maybe over a hundred. With updates even. I also learned to develop different styles of writing and formatting so people wouldn’t notice they were written by the same person, me.
Some of my stories got into the podcasts I listen to daily. Its always exciting to hear my own stories being read by someone else.
But I realize that this is not healthy anymore. I could develop so many of these stories into short stories or novels. I’ve learned a lot and improved my writing, these are compelling, engaging, even gut-wrenching stories that I think people would like to read if they were books.
It’s time for me to stop this and start writing fiction for real.
Another reason why I should quit it, it’s because I fucking hate the mods, some of my best stories has been deleted for bullshit reasons, or I just can’t find the right sub to post them. But I gotta say, engaging with people in real time is part of the fun of it.
I don’t want you to think everything on reddit is fake, and I don’t care if some posts are fake or not, I have so many fucked up real stories in my family that no reddit story ever even came close to be as fucked up as real life and would be tossed aside as fake instantly. Reality is weirder than fiction.
Thanks for reading my confession. I’ll go out, touch grass, and start writing fiction.
BTW, I only post fake shit on Throwaway accounts, I’ve never done that on my real main account, and I never lie IRL. Maybe that’s why it felt so exciting early on.
I start under the assumption that every reddit post is 100% fiction and work from there. Especially on subs like TIFU or Amitheasshole.
Would be fucking great if we could not do that, though.
That’s why I blocked those subs, they’re all fake or just people looking for validation
I have only see the ones on r/all and I once saw a post on AITA, where it was not obvious whos fault it was. The rest were just, as you said, people looking for validation.
I am actually of the opposite opinion on that; even if the stories were fake, the advice that they received was real and could be very useful, especially for AITA. Other times, they would spawn real conversations in the comments.
There’s a lot of people that are desperate for attention and validation and the karma system becomes really addictive to them.
I had a lot of contentious exchanges with one person, supposedly a lady, that had to insert herself in every conversation in the sub, screech wildly about anything that went against her progressive ideas, even if it was inoffensive, instigate dumb debates and then accuse people of creating strawmen or sealioning, and somehow found a way to pretend to be a victim every single time. If a post mentioned the holocaust - her husband’s father is a holocaust survivor. If someone mentioned sexual abuse, she was a victim of rape. If there was a mention of a kidnapping, she was kidnapped at 16. If someone discussed a murder, her best friend was brutally murdered before her eyes, etc. It got ridiculous when some medical subject came up and then apparently she’s a doctor with 20 years of experience in exactly that subject and who teaches on that subject at a prestigious medical school. I have no idea how such a doctor can spend 20 hours a day on reddit and get 120k posts in a few years, but maybe that’s just me. And I’m pretty sure she had several alts because her comments would be immediately upvoted and any dissenting viewpoint downvoted to oblivion. A few of the posters also had the exact same writing style and used the same arguments, which of course they justified as “great minds think alike” and “that’s because you’re wrong, bigot”. If she was ever genuinely downvoted, she’d immediately complain.
It really sucked the life out of the sub. And there are tons of people just like her on many subs.