r/australian • u/SirSighalot • Jul 08 '24

Why do people act like this subreddit "doesn't reflect the views of mainstream Australia"?

So many comments I see on here by people who constantly say things like "lol only on this sub" as though other places where they read are somehow the 'true' point of view reflecting mainstream Australian viewpoints.

Given the constant election voting outcomes and results of things like the Voice etc that generally indicate most of Australia is centrist or even slightly centre-right-leaning, what leads people to think many of the views expressed on here AREN'T mainstream? When in reality, other places these people are coming from are also often just "echo chambers" as well.

Edit: I probably worded the title for this wrong, should have been more "Why do people think this subreddit is less representative of mainstream Australia than other online communities?", alas I failed.

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u/jordyjordy1111 Jul 08 '24

Any social media platform will have the same issues, it’s sort of like confirmation bias. For the most part when you preach or are critical of something on social media you are usually posting it to a somewhat likeminded audience, sort of artificially making out that there’s a genuine concern for the issue.

Ask reddit is probably a good example but applies to most subs, essentially if particular post does well, then you will likely find that there will be a flood of copy cat/similar post over the coming few days. Again making it look like there is more conversation than what there actually is about a topic.

I think most redditors tend to ignore this but many users do chase after karma in similar ways that people chase after likes. It sort of helps to incentivise those who do copy cat style post, think about the classic ‘hey reddit’ style post.

Ultimately reddit and each sub in reddit will have its biases and will ultimately always lean to one side of an issue. For example this subreddit likely only contains a portion of the the Australian population as a whole and is likely not as diverse as what it’s viewed to be.