Reddit Refresh

When I come home each night, I go through my routine of opening 5 separate tabs: Gmail, Facebook, Couch Athletics, YouTube, and Reddit. I then proceed to go through all the content created for me to consume from that day. I'm not the first to describe the process of consuming media as a chore, but it's come close to that, as I've come to realize.

Gmail could hold anything. I could check Facebook less often and not lose much. Couch Athletics has just a few posts a day, but I also need to help run the place. I enjoy the YouTube videos I watch, and I've taken control of my subscriptions by being willing to skip ones that don't catch my interest. Rhett and Link, I love y'all, but I'm not always willing to sit down for 10 minutes each day for you.

But Reddit sticks out to me as a site that I go to unenthusiastically, open up several tabs of quick, easy-to-digest content from imgur, and move on. I rarely vote at all, but lately when I do, it's a downvote of some repetitive or simplistic post in /r/atheism or /r/politics or a few other of the more objectionable subreddits.

So I'm dropping most of the main subreddits in hopes that I'll either be enriched by better content or spend less time on there. Here's a list of what I'm dropping and keeping, in case I look back fondly upon my time as a more mainstream Reddit user and wish to turn back. But I suppose it's also an opportunity to reflect on what I felt I was getting out of each:

Dropping

Funny - Not humorous enough regularly to warrant me keeping it.
Politics - Not interested in being frustrated at op-ed quotes and simplistic self posts.
Gaming - Tired of gaming memes.
AskReddit - Occasionally an interesting question, but usually just causes anger at Reddit community.
Atheism - There's so little that's interesting or useful anymore.
Bestof - Sometimes a good comment, usually not amazing.
DAE - I've seen enough of these, and they're rarely new.
F7U12 - I used to love and make these, but they're just a plain storytelling tool now.
ClassicRage - Not enough really entertaining comics for me to stick around.
BuildaPC - Useful to read while I was making this computer, but not very relevant right now.
AskCulinary - Meh, wasn't get much out of it.

Relevant Keeping

MildlyInteresting - Sticks to its theme, cute.
Games - News, replacement for Gaming.
AskScience - The best subreddit, easily.
AskHistorians - Useful, reliable information.
Programming - Occasional good information, never anything stupid.
Castles - Great pictures and history.
Tipofmytongue - Fun subreddit to see new things and maybe help someone out.
TrueAtheism - Replacement for Atheism.

Adding

Music - We'll see if this has good content!
Technology - Might want to keep up-to-date on hardware, software, and the industry
Movies - Some posts looked interesting. Like the other big subreddits I'm adding, we'll see.
WalkingDead - I like the show. Maybe I'll like talking about it.
Skeptic - Maybe a good addendum to TrueAtheism.
XX - If I can learn something about feminism from here, great.
MensRights - I should be able to tackle whatever I see here.
Geek - Meh, give it a shot.
YouShouldKnow - We all have gaps in our experience that we don't even know about.
MildlyInfuriating - The more like MildlyInteresting this is, the better.
ExplainLikeIAmA - Another one that could be fun.
ArtisanVideos - Should be insightful and entertaining, as well as inspire appreciation of technology.
DataIsBeautiful - It is.
PostCollapse - Could be fun.
FoodForThought - For if I ever have time to kill thinking about something challenging.

We'll see if this improves my online experience or if I'll miss the occasional chuckle amongst the web of tabs.