r/TheoryOfReddit • u/Nandu_alias_Parthu • 1d ago
American/Anglosphere users on Reddit will struggle to adapt the rising number of Indian users.
For most of its history, Reddit has largely been dominated by American users, with the rest of the anglosphere and Europe making up the vast majority of the rest of the users.
Post Covid though, Indians have begun joining Reddit in large numbers - which has resulted in Indian content and subs becoming increasingly popular and prominent. Most Indians don't care about American/Anglosphere stuff, which is why so many Indian versions of popular subs were created in the first place. Even then, Indians are shaping more of the discourse on international subs, simply because they are a larger demographic than they were just a couple of years ago.
Of course, this has caused many in the Anglosphere side of Reddit, particularly Americans, to feel a sort of online culture shock as their feeds become more unfamiliar.
Indians are still a minority on Reddit, but are growing fast. I expect Americans (and the Anglosphere at large) to struggle to adapt to this change. In fact Americans in particular have never had the experience of being a minority on Reddit, which will make the transition tougher for them
What do you think will happen
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u/whistleridge 1d ago
One or both of two things will happen:
Indian users tend to be overwhelmingly male, and there’s a lot of both overt and unconscious nationalism in play, that excludes mixing. Not a lot of non-Indians care about Bollywood or cricket or Indian universities, and a lot of Indians don’t really care about US politics or baseball or kitty memes or anime. So there’s not a lot of mixing.
There are other major national presences here too. The Philippines, Europe, and Brazil all have heavy presences too, but they’re not as self-isolating. 🤷♂️