Reddit in Transition: A Two-Year Examination of Social Media Experiences and Evolution

In the past 2 years, Reddit has grown its user base while also increasing the proportion of users who learn important/useful things & decreasing the proportion of users who report negative experiences

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Jul 17, 2025

Introduction

How does a social media platform double its revenue and user base in just three years? In 2024, Reddit generated $1.3 billion in revenue, had 91 million daily active users, was valued at $10 billion pre-IPO, and obtained over $1.3 billion in funding—the most of any year since 2012. Founded in 2005, it has experienced the most unprecedented, exponential growth in recent years, launching the platform ahead of giants like Messenger, TikTok, Twitter / X, Snapchat, and more in terms of active users. One of the benefits of tracking subjective user experiences longitudinally using the Neely Social Media Index is that we can investigate such transformations more deeply to see what is happening for users and, in so doing, gain insights about purpose-driven design.

First, let’s take a look at the basics of the platform. Compared to other social media platforms, Reddit has traditionally emphasized a community-first approach. It leveraged cultural trends to develop a user base that engages with a wide range of content, including news, reviews, and life advice. Reddit is organized into niche subreddits (e.g. r/AskReddit, r/gaming) that users can choose to join, post, and like or dislike comments (“upvote”/”downvote”) in. It’s built on an upvote economy, where users gain “karma” points from receiving upvotes. For a long time, Reddit also remained largely only user-moderated in its content; with its generally anonymous nature, this allowed users to express unfiltered opinions and have unfiltered conversations on their interests.

The 2020 election served as a key point in Reddit’s rise to the mainstream. Following election hate and controversy, Reddit largely abandoned its user-based moderation philosophy banning ~2,000 subreddits that violated its new content policy against "hate based on identity or vulnerability." This propelled a new age of the platform that was more brand-friendly in the general public. Following that was the virality of subreddit r/WallStreetBets in 2021 after GameStop stock surges; major UI/UX changes, including mobile-focused developments resulting in almost five times more app than website visits from 2022-2024; new SEO strategies that embraced logged out, search traffic; and, more recently, incorporation of user-centric AI tools.

What have users experienced alongside the rise of Reddit? Today, we seek to uncover the human data behind Reddit’s growth from the USC Neely Social Media Index and Understanding America Study surveys. Through assessing user-reported positive and negative experiences on the platform throughout time—from 2023 spring through the pre- and post-2024 election period—we hope to understand changes in the Reddit user experience and explore its growing impact on the public.

Finding 1: Reddit Use Rising in 2023 and 2024 While Other Platforms Decline

The Neely Social Media Index study has surveyed US adults since early 2023 regarding their social media usage, and has recently just finished collecting its fifth wave of data from October 2024 to January 2025. In terms of overall usage by US adults on major platforms, we found that most experienced significant or numerical decreases; for a more comprehensive report, see Matt Motyl’s post on the most recent data wave. Reddit is the only reported platform where we observed an increasing trend in monthly active users among US adults from March 2023 to January 2025 (See: Figure 1-3). From March-May 2023 to October 2024-Jan 2025, the prevalence of Reddit use rose from 11.1% (±2.7%) to 15.5% (±2.7%), reflecting a relative increase of 39.6%. Between the waves, we see the largest increase between waves three and four (11.2% from September 4 to October 15, 2023 to 13.4% from November 6, 2023 to February 18, 2024) and secondly waves four and five (13.7% to 15.5%).

Figure 1. % of US adults who used Reddit in the past 28 days

Note: Neely Social Media Index nationally representative survey panel of 3,734 US adults conducted between March 2 - May 7, 2023 and October 14, 2024 - January 4, 2025. Each wave contained between 1,574 and 2,913 respondents. The weighted margin of error for all use data is +/-2.7%.

To compare user engagement across social media, we grouped other social media platforms into three main categories: Mainstream Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat); Messaging & Communication (WhatsApp, Text Messaging, Email, Facetime, Discord); and Professional/Niche (LinkedIn, Pinterest, X (Twitter), Nextdoor, Online Gaming), averaging their data for comparison.While Reddit showed a positive increase in user prevalence, other platform categories exhibited either plateauing or declining usage trends among U.S. adults (See: Figure 2-3).

Figure 2. % of US adults who used each platform in the past 28 days

Note: Neely Social Media Index survey panel of 3,734 US adults conducted between March 2 - May 7, 2023 and October 14, 2024 - January 4, 2025. Each wave contained between 1,574 and 2,913 respondents. The weighted margin of error for all use data is +/-2.7%.

Figure 3. Raw and relative change of platform usage between March 2 - May 7, 2023 and October 14, 2024 - January 4, 2025

Note: Neely Social Media Index survey panel of 3,734 US adults conducted between March 2 - May 7, 2023 and October 14, 2024 - January 4, 2025. Each wave contained between 1,574 and 2,913 respondents.

Observing raw changes, we saw between the first wave and August 7, 2023 - September 17, 2023, mainstream social media and messaging both increased (0.7% and 1.3%) then decreased slightly by 2.1% and 1.7% until September 4, 2023 to October 15, 2023. Rates then recovered until February 5, 2024 to May 19, 2024 before slipping again by early January 2025. Professional/niche platforms have steadily decreased in usage, falling 1.0% in late summer 2023 and dropping 1.6% more until January 4, 2025. Reddit remains the only platform group experiencing increases in user rates with a strong 2.2% jump between September and November 6, 2023 to February 18, 2024 and another 1.8% gain heading into January 4, 2025.

Figure 4. Raw change of platform usage between March 2 - May 7, 2023 and October 14, 2024 - January 4, 2025

Nearly 50% of Reddit users spend time on Reddit at least once a day. Of the respondents who reported using Reddit in the past 28 days, the largest group reported using the platform multiple times per day (30.3%),16.8% checked roughly once a day, 21.0% checked Reddit a few times per week, and 18.2% checked less than once a week The proportion of daily active users on Reddit is slightly lower than that of messaging and communication apps (e.g., WhatsApp) and social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, but significantly higher than on professional or niche platforms (See: Figure 5). Overall, Reddit’s daily engagement level appears to fall in the middle of the spectrum across platforms.

Figure 5. Frequency breakdown of US adults who used each social media platform category in the last 28 days in October 14, 2024 - January 4, 2025

Note: Row sums may not equal 100% because of rounding and because some users skipped these questions. Percents are calculated with the number of users indicating they used each online service. For example, the prevalence of 30.3% for Reddit should be interpreted as, among all survey participants who reported using Reddit in the past 28 days, 30.3% of them reported using it multiple times per day.

Source: Neely Social Media Index survey of 3,734 US adults conducted Fall 2024/Winter 2025.

Beyond how users engage with Reddit, we are especially interested in understanding their experiences on the platform. The Neely Social Media Index data provides unique insights into self-reported user experiences over time and across various social media platforms, capturing both negative experiences (feeling affected negatively, experiences that are bad for the world) and positive experiences (learning something useful or important, making meaningful connections).

In the report below, we examine Reddit users’ reported experiences by presenting quantitative results alongside illustrative examples from open-ended user descriptions of their experiences.

Negative Personal Experiences

Finding 2.1: Negative Personal Experiences Decline by 39% Among Reddit Users from 2023 to 2025

We first examine whether Reddit users had “personally witnessed or experienced something that affected them negatively” in the 28 days prior to completing the survey, one of the two overarching negative experiences questions we ask survey respondents. Reddit’s share of users reporting negative experiences has generally declined from 13.6% (±6.5%) in March 2 to May 7, 2023 to 8.3% (±6.5%) in October 14, 2024 to January 4, 2025, presenting a raw decrease of 5.3% and relative decrease of 39% among US adults (See: Figure 6-8). While decrease is within our margin of error, it is worth reporting the consistently downward trend that may reflect Reddit’s evolving niche as an information platform. This could be because an increasing number of Reddit users now come from Google searches, where users are finding information and then moving on, with a limited opportunity to encounter content that negatively affects them.

Figure 6. % of US adults on Reddit witnessing or experiencing something that affected then negatively in the last 28 days

Across platforms, the overall trend appears to be that negative experiences relatively decrease from March 2023 to September 2023; rates then start to resurge until the most recent wave, where they decline again. While all platforms see a general reduction in negative personal experiences, we can see Reddit experiences the largest relative decrease between March 2 - May 7, 2023 and October 14, 2024 - January 4, 2025.

Figure 7. % of US adults on social media platforms witnessing or experiencing something that affected then negatively in the last 28 days

Figure 8. % of US adults witnessing or experiencing something that affected them negatively in the last 28 days

Finding 2.2: Politics, Health Information, and Crime Drive Most Negative Experiences on Reddit

We also examined how users describe the topics that contribute to their negative personal experiences. Overwhelmingly, politics was the most cited topic related to user negative experiences, comprising over one-third (34.6%) of the negative experiences of Reddit user respondents in data collected in Oct 2024 to Jan 2025. For instance, one user who chose to respond to the open-ended question asking them to elaborate on their negative personal experience wrote, “The constant outrage and the willingness to accept anything negative at face value, without critical thought, is exhausting and depressing.”

¹While the average raw change is negative for the platforms, the relative change is positive because Discord and FaceTime start from low baselines, yielding comparatively larger raw relative changes. The negative raw shifts on Email and WhatsApp result in much smaller relative losses, thus the former holds more weight in averaging.

This aligns with broader trends we have observed across platforms and Reddit’s history of political discourse bringing controversy. In this way, Reddit is similar to traditional social media sites, where users also report negative experiences related to discussions of political content.

Following politics, medical and health information (19.4%), crime (15.6%), and local news (13.4%) also ranked highly among the content areas contributing to negative experiences. One respondent described, “Reading someone else's medical experiences made me worried about my own health.” Personal finance (8.0%) and other (9.0%) were cited less frequently, suggesting that the vast majority of negative interactions on Reddit deal with public, societal content domains.

Figure 9.

Note: Percentages are calculated by dividing the number of people reporting the experience on each platform by the number of people who use each platform.

Source: Neely Social Media Index survey of 3,734 US adults conducted Fall 2024/Winter 2025.

We also observe that over time, politics remained the leading topic linked to negative Reddit experiences, though it declined overall from 39.6% to 34.6%. Meanwhile, reports related to medical and health information nearly doubled from 9.9% to 19.4%. Crime dropped notably in the most recent wave, while mentions of local news and personal finance increased. This may reflect a mix shift in the kinds of topics being accessed through Google search as compared to previous, more community driven, usage of the platform.

Figure 10. Topics breakdown of negative personal experience on Reddit across waves

Note: Percentages are calculated by dividing the number of people reporting the experience on each platform by the number of people who use each platform.

Source: Neely Social Media Index survey of 3,734 US adults conducted Fall 2024/Winter 2025.

Finding 2.3: Negative Experiences on Reddit can Elicit Emotional Responses of Worry and Anger, so too on Other Platforms

Among US adults who used Reddit in the past month that reported a negative experience, nearly

1 in 5 (17.9%) said it worried them, 16.5% said it made them angry, and 13.7% said it annoyed them. 12.3% reported that it negatively impacted their psychological well-being, 9.2% reported it reduced their trust, and a smaller percentage made them feel attacked (7.2%) or unsafe (3.6%). As one user notes, “Watching personal advice given to people that could be very destructive to their relationships and lives,” indicating the potential impact of Reddit comments on well-being. Interestingly, 5.3% of users said their negative experience did not affect them a great deal; however, these results demonstrate the potential for social media platforms to produce negative personal impact, though to a lesser extent than in past years on Reddit, with overall declining negative experience rates.

Figure 11. Breakdown of impact of negative personal experience on US adult Reddit users

Note: Percentages are calculated by dividing the number of people reporting the experience on each platform by the number of people who use each platform.

Source: Neely Social Media Index survey of 3,734 US adults conducted Fall 2024/Winter 2025.

For clearer analysis, we grouped the original 11 impact response options into broader categories. Specifically, “Less likely to express myself” was categorized under Expression & Engagement,. Both “Negatively impacted psychological well-being” and “Worried me” were retained under Psychological Well-being, respectively, while “Made me angry”, “Worried me”, and “Annoyed me” were collectively grouped under Emotional Reaction “Reduced trust in other people” and “Reduced trust in societal institutions” were merged into a single Trust category. Similarly, vulnerability indicators—“Felt unsafe” and “Felt attacked”—were combined into a Safety & Harm category. We preserved “Did not affect me a great deal” and “Other” as standalone categories.

Emotional reactions were the most common impact across all platforms, and highest on messaging apps (16.3%) and Reddit (16.0%). Reddit users reported the greatest psychological well-being impact (12.3%) but were least likely to reduce expression (5.9%). Trust-related concerns were highest on mainstream platforms (13.1%), while safety-related impacts were more common on messaging and niche platforms than on Reddit or mainstream social media.

Figure 12. Breakdown of impact of negative personal experiences reported by users of each platform across waves

Note: Percentages are calculated by dividing the number of people reporting the experience on each platform by the number of people who use each platform.

Source: Neely Social Media Index survey of 3,734 US adults conducted Fall 2024/Winter 2025.

Experience of seeing “Bad for the World” Content

Finding 3.1: “Bad for the World” Content on Reddit Also Decline Slightly

Next, we analyze whether Reddit users witnessed or experienced content that they would consider bad for the world. This metric has remained relatively stable over the past few years, with 14.1% (±6.5%) of Reddit users reporting having encountered such content from March 2 to May 7, 2023 and 11.5% (±6.5%) from October 14, 2024 to January 4, 2025 (See: Figure 13). This reflects a raw decrease of 2.6% and relative decrease of 18.4% over the two years (See: Figure 14-15). It is also worth noting the low of 9.8% reported from September 4 to October 15, 2023 before slightly increasing again, indicating fluctuations although no changes were outside the weighted margin of error. Still, the overall pattern suggests that Reddit may be slowly but steadily reducing the visibility or reach of content users consider to be bad for the world.

Figure 13. % of US adults witnessing or experiencing content they consider to be “bad for the world” in the last 28 days on Reddit

Similar to our other negative experience variable, platforms seem to generally experience a decline and resurgence pattern for users encountering “bad for the world” content. Of public-facing platforms, Reddit users report among the steepest drops in negative experiences, suggesting potential positive platform change effects on users.

Figure 14. % of US adults witnessing or experiencing content they consider to be “bad for the world” in the last 28 days on each platform

Figure 15. % of US adults witnessing or experiencing content they consider to be “bad for the world” in the last 28 days on Reddit (relative change)

Finding 3.2: Politics Leads as Topic of Content Seen as Harmful to the World on Reddit in March 2023 to Jan 2025

As observed in our topical breakdown of reported negative experiences, Reddit users overwhelmingly found “bad for the world”content to be politics-related (37%), reinforcing overarching findings of political discourse potentially causing negative personal and societal experiences online (See: Figure 16-17). For instance, one respondent noted in the open-ended response, “Insane amount of political content, bots, and manipulation,” highlighting concerns about political discussions on the platform.

Following politics were the topics of medical or health information (17%), crime (15.7%), and local news (11.3%)—all public or systemic issues—followed by none of the above (11.1%) and personal finance (7.8). The ranking distribution of these topic categories for user-perceived “bad for the world” content on Reddit is identical to that of the negative personal experiences variable. Topics that appear to frequently be cited with regards to negative experiences include politics, hate/social division, violence, and other system-level issues. Another user expressed such concern over the nature of discussions, responding, “Many posts dehumanize those with differing political views, which leads to accepting violence against those people.”

Figure 16. Breakdown of topics of “bad for the world” content reported by Reddit users Note: Percentages are calculated by dividing the number of people reporting the experience on each platform by the number of people who use each platform.

Source: Neely Social Media Index survey of 3,734 US adults conducted Fall 2024/Winter 2025.

Figure 17. Breakdown of topics of “bad for the world” content reported by Reddit users across waves

Note: Percentages are calculated by dividing the number of people reporting the experience on each platform by the number of people who use each platform.

Source: Neely Social Media Index survey of 3,734 US adults conducted Fall 2024/Winter 2025.

Across waves, we see politics consistently emerge as the leading topic of content considered bad for the world on Reddit, ranging from 36.4% to 43.1%. Crime and local news also remained prominent, although crime saw a slight decline in the most recent wave. Medical and health information rose sharply in the final wave, while personal finance showed a gradual increase over time. Harmful content not associated with any of the other categories remained stable. Users also shared experiences with age verification and digital well-being concerns; oversimplification of current events and excessive hate; and misinformation and propaganda.

Finding 3.3: Users Link Harmful Content to Increased Polarization and Division across Platforms

We see that among US adult Reddit users who encountered content they considered to be bad for the world, the largest concern was content that potentially increased political polarization (accounting for 28.1% of responses). Secondly, 25.7% were worried that some content may increase hate, fear, or anger between groups of people, 21.9% believed it could misinform or mislead the public, and 17.8% believed it could increase the risk of violence. These findings align with those of our other negative experience variables, showcasing broader narratives of concern for divisive content such as in the topics of politics. Only 3.8% said the content they saw was unlikely to have much of an effect, suggesting that users believe “bad for the world” content on Reddit may yield significant consequences on viewers.

Figure 18. Breakdown of perceived impact of encountering “bad for the world” content on Reddit users

Note: Percentages are calculated by dividing the number of people reporting the experience on each platform by the number of people who use each platform.

Source: Neely Social Media Index survey of 3,734 US adults conducted Fall 2024/Winter 2025.

Figure 19. Breakdown of perceived impact of encountering “bad for the world” content on US adults using each platform

Note: Percentages are calculated by dividing the number of people reporting the experience on each platform by the number of people who use each platform.

Source: Neely Social Media Index survey of 3,734 US adults conducted Fall 2024/Winter 2025.

Interestingly, the pattern of user concerns seen on Reddit is consistent with trends observed on other social media platforms. Reddit users most frequently cited "Increase political polarization" (28.1%) and "Increase hate/fear/anger between groups" (25.7%) as the primary negative impacts of viewing “bad for the world” content, aligning with broader trends across other platform categories. Notably, "Misinform or mislead people" was also a significant concern, particularly on Messaging & Communication platforms (33.6%). Our findings suggest the role of online platforms in potentially exacerbating societal divisions and spreading misinformation, with differential effects depending on the type of platform. Broadly, users report a greater proportion of misleading content on messaging platforms and more divisive content within public social discussions. Reddit users in particular are more likely to report divisive content, rather than misleading content, when considering content that is “bad for the world”.

Users Learning Useful Information

Finding 4.1: Users Learning Useful Information on Reddit Jumped by 70%

We will next examine whether US adults who learned something useful or important on Reddit in the last 28 days, one of the two overarching positive experiences questions we ask survey respondents. As seen in the chart below, the percentage of Reddit users who reported this positive experience showed a consistent and statistically significant increase over the course of the survey period. The rate began at 28.2% (±6.5%) in March 2 to May 7, 2023 and reached 47.8% (±6.5%) this wave by October 14, 2024 to January 4, 2025, yielding a raw increase of 19.6 percentage points and a relative increase of 69.5% (See: Figure 20-22). We found that over the past two years, Reddit is the platform with the most substantial increase in which users reported learning useful information.

Figure 20. % of US adults on Reddit who learned something that was useful or helped them understand something important in the last 28 days

Reddit’s exponential growth becomes even more apparent when we compare its trajectory with those of other platforms; it experiences one of the highest and most consistent raw and relative changes. This upward trend over the past two years supports our general observation that Reddit is becoming increasingly valued as an informational platform, potentially reflecting an increasing usage of the platform to answer specific Google searches..

Figure 21. % of US adults on each platform who learned something that was useful or helped them understand something important in the last 28 days

Figure 22. % of US adults on each platform who learned something that was useful or helped them understand something important in the last 28 days (relative change)

In the open-ended responses we received, Reddit users claimed: “It's a great place for learning from others for niche hobbies or topics,” with the content they found useful including product reviews, health advice, local hobby groups, quick fixes, troubleshooting technology, navigation of student loans, and keeping up with current events.

Meaningful Social Connection

Finding 5.1: Reddit Users Reporting Meaningful Social Connection Remain Low

Interestingly, in contrast, we saw the percentage of Reddit users who reported experiencing a meaningful connection with others fluctuate throughout survey waves, with an overall decrease of 0.9% and relative decrease of 9.5%. The rate started at 9.5% in the first wave of data, increasing briefly to 11% before sharply dropping to 5.5% and then stabilizing to around 8 - 8.6% in later waves. However, there were no significant changes outside the margin of error of 6.5%; still, Reddit remains one of the platforms with the lowest rates of users who experienced meaningful connections, lagging especially behind private messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, Facetime, and Messaging.

Given the affordances of different social media platforms, messaging apps are expected to rank highest in fostering connection, as they enable direct communication with people in one's social network. The explicit purpose of those platforms is generally to message people you know. Platforms like Instagram also score high by allowing users to follow and engage with friends. In contrast, Reddit ranks lower, as most interactions occur between users who are not connected in real life. The increasing use of Reddit for informational needs may be crowding out the usage of the platform for connection.

Figure 23. % of US adults on Reddit who experienced a meaningful connection with others in the last 28 days

Figure 24. % of US adults on each platform who experienced a meaningful connection with others in the last 28 days

Figure 25. % of US adults on each platform who experienced a meaningful connection with others in the last 28 days (relative change)

Examples of meaningful connections users formed with others on Reddit include: “There is a support group for sharing medical information. Sometimes people just need someone to explain things and calm them down.”; “Connecting over shared interest in a podcast and a project I’m doing”; “Just sharing different views and opinions”; and other comments on being able to relate over experiences or connect over niche interests/hobbies.

Finding 6. Reddit-Google Deal Associated with Increased User Learning of Useful Information

Table 1. % of US adult Reddit users’ positive and negative experiences pre (Sep 2023-Feb 2024) and post (Feb 2024 to Feb 2025) the Google - Reddit deal

Note: Table 1 presents between-person differences in Reddit use experiences.

*: We conducted two-sample t-tests on each experience outcome within each user group. We found that the increase in learning something useful for heavy users (+7.4%) and non-heavy user groups (+8.0%), as well as the increase in “bad for world” content in non-heavy user groups (+3.0%) are significant statistically (p<0.05).

+: We conducted chi-square tests on post-period experience outcomes across the three user groups (heavy users, non-heavy users, and new users) for each of the four experience variables, finding significant differences among the groups in all cases (p < 0.001).

Since the survey asked participants to recall their social media experiences over the past 28 days, we used February 21, 2024 + 28 days as the cutoff for defining pre- and post-periods. “Heavy” users are defined by usage of at least once/day. “Non-Heavy” users are defined by usage of less than once/day. It is almost certain that changes happened gradually, such that any effects are likely to be diluted by a gradually applied treatment condition over this period.

In February 2024, Google and Reddit signed a $60 million deal that lets Google use Reddit posts to train its AI models and enhance Search, while Reddit gains access to Google’s AI tools to improve its own search and features. We were interested in the impacts of the Reddit-Google deal on Reddit users’ experience. By analyzing waves of UAS data surrounding the deal, with the deal date, February 21, 2024, as a cut-off, we compared the between-persons Reddit use experience on heavy Reddit US adult users (using more than once a day), non-heavy users (using less than once a day), and new users (became Reddit user only after the cut-off date on February 21, 2024), shown in Table 1. To clarify, this means all respondents who reported Reddit use in the last 28 days after March 20, 2024, 28 days after February 21st, were considered “post-”users.

Both heavy and non-heavy Reddit users experienced significant increases in learning something useful after the Reddit-Google deal. Heavy users' negative experiences and encounters with "bad for the world" content remain virtually unchanged across the cutoff (+0.5% and -3.3% change, respectively, Table 1). Interestingly, for heavy users, the rates of learning something useful jump by 7.4%* (statistically significant), although meaningful connections decline by 1.4%. Non-heavy users, by contrast, see small decreases in negative experiences (-0.5%) and increases in harmful content (+3.0%)* (statistically significant). Still, they start off with much lower percentages of all experience variables (except learning something useful) overall within the subgroup. Similar to the heavy user groups, we observe larger gains in both learning (+8.0%, Table 1)* and meaningful connections (+1.6%, Table 1)* (both statistically significant) for non-heavy users. We further conducted within-person analyses and the results confirmed that heavy users showed significant useful information gains, while non-heavy users yielded lower negative experiences.

New users, who started to use Reddit after the Reddit-Google deal, reported significantly fewer negative experiences and greater learning gains compared to existing users. Only 1.7% new users reported negative experiences in the post period, significantly lower than the rate from existing users. Moreover, 52.4% of the new users experienced “learning something useful,” significantly higher than the rate reported by heavy and non-heavy existing users. Furthermore, our within-person analyses confirmed the trends observed in the between-person analyses. Due to space constraints, within-group analysis results are not reported here; please contact us if you are interested in accessing them.

In summary, we observed three interesting patterns from the analysis around the user experience before and after the Reddit-Google deal. First, we saw more than 300 new users coming to Reddit platform, which accounted for more than 10% of the existing users in our sample. Second, we observed that new users reported lower negative experiences on Reddit than existing users, probably due to new users coming in with different expectations or engaging on Reddit platform discussions differently from existing users. Finally, we observed a significant improvement in the user experience of "learning something useful" among both heavy and non-heavy users following the deal. This may be attributed to Reddit’s integration of Google AI tools into its internal search functions, which likely prioritize the helpfulness and relevance of information.

In Summary

We see through analysis of data from the Neely Social Media Index survey that Reddit presents a compelling case of purpose-driven growth. Of all social media platforms, Reddit stands out as the only platform that significantly grew its number of monthly active users from March 2023 to January 2025, and by a relative change of nearly 40%. This period of growth was marked by a dramatic increase in the percentage of users who learned something useful on the platform, rising nearly 70% relatively to cover almost half of its users. Rates of negative experience variables on Reddit also reduced in the past two years, with its decrease in reports of negative personal experiences and “bad of the world content” being second only to TikTok.

Our results can help inform the public of Reddit’s relative role in the social media sphere. First, it appears to be evolving from a technology and programming-oriented community space in its very early stages to a more mainstream, knowledge aggregation space, tailored to answering specific questions. While we found that less meaningful connections are made on Reddit compared to traditional messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Facetime, our findings suggest that many US adults utilize Reddit as a valuable learning space, with its structure conducive to humanizing the processes of journalism, content creation, and digital connection and discussion. Reddit and YouTube top our rankings for places where users learn new things and both systems welcome logged out access from search and have prominent ways where users can vote information that is useful up or down.

Amidst the digital age we live in, surveys such as the Neely Social Media Index can provide increasingly valuable information in assessing digital impact and comparing platform affordances. Within such data lies many lessons to be learned—including the potential underlying user experiences behind Reddit’s growth.

A guest post by

Emily Xing

thinkings, ramblings, hopings

A guest post by

Yuning Liu

Designing Tomorrow

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