I originally joined Reddit in 2011, and in the beginning it was dominated by cat content. It was rare to see a post about dogs. Sometime in the mid 20-teens this phenomenon reversed. It’s always been a “pet theory” of mine that this reversal was due to Reddit becoming mainstream, and that it’s initial nerdy/techie user base preferred cats to dogs.

I think my theory is further supported by Lemmy. It’s pretty clear that most of Lemmy’s user base are techies, and currently it’s dominated by cat content. Just a shower thought. May be wrong.

NOTE: I love dogs and cats. This post isn’t arguing favoritism.

  • rouxdoo@lemmy.world
    32·
    1 year ago

    I can’t attest to the accuracy of your hypothesis but I have been thinking a lot about AI lately. I’m eagerly awaiting the day that some genius comes up with an AI post filter that I can tell it to “never show me cats” or “block and downvote all memes”. That will be the day that the internet becomes a peaceful place for me.

    …and dogs rule, btw.