Consider this: Twitter is a monoculture; Facebook is two monocultures arguing; and Reddit has culture. Each major social media platform has a personality of its own. Now, discuss!

Each social media platform has a distinct personality

Seriously, though, people come from all corners of the earth and the internet to meet on social media and share their experiences, express their opinions, reconnect with old friends, stay connected with new ones, and more. And, yes, more frequently than not, people argue, disagree, and hate on each other — no matter the social media platform — because that's what we do. We're only human, after all.

What sets Reddit apart from platforms like Facebook and Twitter is its personality type. While you could say that Facebook's and Twitter's respective personalities frequently "are going through some stuff right now" or "having an off day," Reddit and Redditors have already arrived and are comfortable in their own skin because of how it's structured and who its users are. How so? Let's look at the data on Reddit’s personality.

Reddit by numbers

First, the standard stuff. What we see regarding agreeableness and neuroticism is normal from what we see elsewhere on social media. We often see low agreeableness. It's rare even to see positive agreeableness in CulturePulse studies. There are even very few subreddits with net positivity and agreeableness. With neuroticism, you also often see net negativity consistently across social media. So far, Reddit is on par with the other major platforms for this kind of sentiment analysis.

However, Reddit really stands out with the orders-of-magnitude-higher-level extroversion over the other positive traits of openness and conscientiousness, meaning Redditors are willing to engage with others and meet people where they are from a personality standpoint. Furthermore, despite the high levels of negativity and neuroticism, Reddit's high level of conscientiousness creates an even-handed and mathematically balanced sense of community across the platform.

What's also interesting is the low level of openness. Because Reddit is a system of subreddits, users can directly find their community and tribe or even create one. Reddit users are most likely open in their real lives and would already feel at home in a subreddit because the platform fosters a sense of comfort and safety within its chosen communities. You don’t need to worry about what people will say, type, or think if you’re wearing your pajamas while cursing the darkness. Or lighting a candle.

Take a step back and enjoy the space that’s Reddit

Sure. Reddit might not be your cuppa. But have you ever checked out r/popular and wondered where all that cool, wild, crazy, and heartwarming stuff came from? It came from open-minded, conscientious, and extroverted people with a certain amount of negative agreeableness and neuroticism who have a safe place for you to hang out if you’re ever interested.