Reddit is the place to find answers

Content warning: This article contains references to suicide and struggling with mental health.

As of October 2021, there were roughly 430 million monthly active users in the world calling Reddit home. The USC subgroup itself has over 25,000 members and last week, as I logged on at 10:56 a.m. Friday morning, 151 Trojans were actively online. 

What is Reddit? For those who aren’t familiar, it is a massive collection of forums where people share news and content while responding to others. However, it is so much more than that. Reddit is a place where people seek answers and is also a place where people seek companionship, comfort and solace — the ultimate college friend. 

Sometimes you just need input on a class, so you type in a course number and several discussions pop up, mentioning teachers, assignments and workloads — the honest truth about a class that a counselor wouldn’t share with you or that you couldn’t find on Rate My Professors.  

Students will ask about social life, promote upcoming events and find the best local bars and clubs. It is for students, by students, providing the advice of lived experiences, rather than a Yelp Top 10 list. 

Every single day, hundreds of posts enter the USC forum. Pool tables around campus? Has anyone caught an Aerodactyl on campus on Pokémon GO? Looking for a dining hall buddy?

Reddit has crafted its reputation around being a helping hand. Beyond academic resources or questions about events, it has become an avenue for creating connections, whether that be people seeking new friends, class recommendations, someone to go to the gym with or someone to explore the city with — it’s all been done on Reddit. There are so many people seeking relationships and connections, and when it feels impossible, one turn to Reddit will prove you wrong. 

However, Reddit goes even deeper than that. Earlier this month on March 15, a student made a post captioned, “im so worthless.” The post was short, emphasizing that they are not meaningful and no one would care if they were gone. The comment sections were filled with messages of support, resources and those relating to the struggles of being a USC student.

On March 23, a week later, the same student posted a follow-up, writing that they are still a student at USC and have been in therapy for months. Additionally, the student shared that after writing that post, they had tried to take their own life, detailing the experience and the support they received from friends and family during recovery. The end of the post reflected on the original post. 

“I’m going back through all those comments again, and it took me now to realize: no one would be telling me any of these things if I hadn’t given them a reason to. They see something in me that I don’t,” wrote the user. “I now realize, everyone that commented on my first post, you were all right.”

This student was one of many who have come forward, detailing the more painful sides of their experience at USC. As a student, it can be so easy to struggle at the hands of social and academic pressures, combined with the individual pressures one may have or be defined by. There are so many shared experiences shared by the student community of our school, yet it can be so easy to feel that you are alone in your challenges. 

Reddit has done something that no other social media platform has harnessed — it reminds students that no matter what, they’re not alone in their experiences. While every other social media platform is defined by creating one’s presence, brand or putting their best foot forward in hopes of creating a positive reputation, Reddit is defined by anonymity. It allows students to have the conversations they need to, while forgoing feelings of embarrassment or anxiety about how it may be perceived by others. 

College is a confusing world. Navigating moving away from home, finding new friends, dealing with the pressure of grades, extracurriculars and expectations while navigating your own mental health challenges is nothing but difficult — something nearly all college students can testify to. Reddit is by no means a replacement for a therapist or real-world connections, but it is a strong guiding force that provides unique support to college students unlike any other platform. 

Reddit is the ultimate platform for finding solace while navigating the world of college. Whether you need advice for traveling to Santa Monica or details on how to get the mental health help you need, it is all there.