I’ll share mine first.
I had a psych patient one night pile shitty toilet paper next to his toilet overnight. Normally my psych nurse brain would consider this a symptom of disorganized psychosis, EXCEPT!
I remembered an aita post about a conflict between a western OP and his middle eastern roomate trying to figure out why their roommate put their shitty toilet paper in the trash. Turns out many middle eastern toilets can’t handle toilet paper.
Oh and inpatient psychiatry doesn’t provide freestanding hard plastic trashcans (turns out they make great clubs). We gave him one of our freestanding paper bag trashcans and problem solved.
TL;DR; Reddit expanded my cultural knowledge enough to differentiate disorganized psychotic behaviors from a genuine cultural difference. Thanks reddit!
Anyone have any similar examples of positive exchanges of knowledge or culture using reddit?
I learned to just shut up. Reading something that bothered me, even though it may only have been a technicality. I often had an answer typed up, held up a second and thought, “who cares?”, and deleted it. Ironic that my first ever comment here on Lemmy is about that.
I had a similar epiphany, though it also coincided with my second divorce, so who’s to say where it really came from?
My inner thought wasn’t “Who cares?” though, it was “Why wrestle in the mud with a pig? All you’ll get is a broken arm, covered in mud, blood, sweat, and who knows what the fuck else. To top it all off, the pig enjoyed the hell out of it.”
You can see why this epiphany may have coalesced at or around the same time my divorce finalized. Still though, I think Reddit had a hoof in this too.
Lots of things, especially from niche subreddits. Outside of the frontpagers, there’s a tremendous wealth of knowledge. It’s one reason why it’s often good to do * + “reddit”* when trying to find things, in particular tech topics, because you can find that one comment where OP lays out the exact info you actually need for topic X.
On a more macroscopic scale: never, ever think that a corporate service will not enshittify. It’s literally part of the life cycle. In my view, it’s why it is so important that we on Lemmy take strides not only to support the platform (more specifically, one’s home instance) but also avoid situations where corporate influence can slowly but pervasively affect it (e.g. the often slippery slope of ad support). We have a rare gift of a platform that may not enshittify, depending on many factors.
I’ve learned to shut up more often. Just because I think I understand how something works, doesn’t mean I actually do. Just because I know enough to extrapolate an answer to something, doesn’t mean it’s always right. It’s scary how often it is, but that only makes this problem worse.
There are funky exceptions here and there, and on Reddit you absolutely will bump into the expert who will call you out on your misguided reasoning.
I learned to make sure my carbon monoxide detectors are working
I learned that the internet (at least in the parts of it that are really mainstream) is a shitty place
I learnt that the official app sucks. Infinity for life.
Sad to say, but it taught me that no matter how online and detached from reality a social situation is, it’s still governed by social norms. You will still be hated by others. Fat? You win be hated by people who don’t understand how you became fat. Gay? You will be judged for being different. Neurodivergent? God help you. And if you don’t believe in that God? There’s others like you in that respect that will make your look awful. Expect to be judged. Everywhere. Anywhere.
Reddit taught me that humanity is full of terrible people and you can’t escape them.
tons of stuff about sci fi franchises i never read/watched
- Get a carbon monoxide detector
- I should have broken both arms when I was a teenager
- Poop knife
You actually wish you were in a position where your mum would give you a hand job?
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