Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Tumblr may be the mainstream ways of socialising online. But for some Hyderabadis who seek a meaningful exchange of thoughts, Reddit is their go-to digital hangout. Here, users can discuss anything and everything under the sun anonymously; no wonder the app is growing popular among Hyderabadis.
From thought-provoking discussions on politics to meme fests on trending topics, the subreddit (community) r/Hyderabad -- which is called Hamara Hyderabad -- has seen a manifold increase in the number of subscribers over the last two years. Until January 2020, the page had less than 10,000 subscribers, which has now crossed 80,000.
“On Reddit, one can find multiple opinions and share anything they want without the fear of being judged. r/Hyderabad is a fun subreddit; I have been following the page since 2017 when it had less than 4,000 users. Unlike Quora, you’d find more interesting people on Reddit,” says Sharath Malhotra, a tax analyst who lives in Manikonda.
Reddit, by definition, is a network of communities that helps people further their interests, hobbies, and passions. Unlike any other social media platform, its users are not judged based on their likes or followers. It is a decentralised social media platform where people can share their opinions, the weirdest of thoughts, fantasies, and hold discussions without bothering about censorship.
For some, Reddit is the platform where news is released and discussed in a wide spectrum. “I follow pages r/Hyderabad, r/Bangalore, and r/Delhi because I travel to these cities frequently. Sometimes, when the stay is short, I meet the Redditors and even crash at their place for a night or so. It’s better than staying at hotels,” says Prasanna Kumar, a manager of a star hotel chain and a resident of Secunderabad.
Twenty-one-year-old Nishant Martha from Sanathnagar, who has been using the platform since his school days, says he is seeing a rise in the Hyderabad community member base. “It is a strong and helpful digital community, especially when you know that there are less than four million Redditors in the country,” he says.
The Hyderabad community is popular for taking up current happenings that matter to the citizens -- such as the one about a Zomato delivery partner being ghosted for a COD order, the issue of cops running keyword searches on motorists’ phones during the recent drug raids, and cabbies refusing to turn on the AC in this blazing summer due to rising fuel prices, among many others.
While change is not something we can expect through these Reddit posts, awareness spreads like wildfire -- be it about harassment at the workplace or information on mental health resources.