I've never been on reddit before, and I can now conclude that I am not a really big fan of the site. It is essentially a forum website in which anyone (and I mean anyone) can go on and write about whatever they please regardless if the information is true or not. That being said let's check out what the people had to say about the field of Public Health.
I wouldn't say that people on reddit were debating or arguing much of anything besides which school offers the best MPH programs or whether or not there are any interesting internships for the summer. Under the "hot" category people were posting personal questions regarding job requirements. For example, ejsuh90 asked, "What can I do with a Masters in Biotatistics". Other than personal questions threads were started about the zika virus, new cancer research, as wells as the Flint, Michigan water crisis.
The Most Interesting Articles (on reddit):
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| Hermann, Uwe "Sugar" 04-20-06 via Flickr Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic |
Sugar Tax
I found the debate on the idea of a sugar tax to be the most interesting due to the fact that it is an unusual topic and the people in the forum posed/made some valid points. Spaten1 argued that a tax on sugar would hurt the poor, while nena_eqo countered with the argument that the same was said about cigarettes yet smoking rates have dropped. I never thought a tax on sugar would be a topic of debate, but reading this forum opened up a whole new window that I've yet to explore.
Chlamydia Outbreak
This shouldn't be funny, but I must admit I was laughing while reading the comments for this story. A school in Texas that only teaches abstinence has had a huge outbreak of chlamydia (not the funny part), and people on reddit were getting outrageously angry with each other about where or not a more revamped sexual education program should be enacted or if abstinence should still be taught. Essentially amanda_pearl was ripped a new one by JuiceBusters. These people got so passive aggressive and angry while arguing that they started to tear each other's arguments down rather than respectfully respond or refute with evidence. For example, JuiceBusters wrote, "Then that is damn scary because you've had a very difficult time explaining things here, misrepresenting them, contradicting yourself then compensating by rephrasing using silly or nefarious phrases and even playing dumb (I mean I hope that's what you're doing)". Dang JuiceBusters that was harsh. The topic was interesting, and sometimes good arguments were made.
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| AJC, "Reddit"11-15-12 via Flickr Attribution-ShareAlike Generic 2.0 |
Impressions?
Based on the reddit forums I am going to conclude that very few Public Health professionals are on reddit, but aspiring professionals are. The main topics of discussion had to do with information regarding the field itself rather than the issues within it. I wasn't expecting people to ask what to do with a degree in epidemiology or where to find a job in California. I guess I was expecting more intellectual information. I was also surprised with how aggressive people can be online. People are wimps and hide behind their virtual words on a forum site. Overall I wouldn't say the reddit should be a source of information to use for a credible assignment, but it can be interesting to see who is pissed at who this week.
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