Social websites have been the biggest source of information since it has come about. Various social media focus on different topics although you see most of them being focused on celebrities and other influential people.
Reddit and Twitter are both websites that are relied on for delivering fast and urgent information. They are often used one for the other. It is not right to do so since they are two different platforms with different purposes. So what is the difference and what should be used for what?
Reddit vs Twitter
The main difference between Reddit and Twitter is that on Reddit, there is more privacy as only the user’s username is displayed whereas in Twitter, along with the username, they must give a bio about themselves.
Twitter is a social media website along with microblogging. The tweets are made for public attraction and the news that is being tweeted need not be verified. So the news could be false. They are segregated based on trends within the website decided by the public and editors.
Reddit is a social news aggregation website. They only display verified news and this news are arranged per the number of votes they get by the users. The users are also to vote depending on the importance of the news. One need not reveal themselves in Reddit.
Comparison Table Between Reddit and Twitter
| Parameters of Comparison | ||
| Meaning | It is a social news aggregation website, web content rating and discussion service website. | It is a microblogging and social networking service. |
| Dependency | User dependent | Public dependent |
| Post segregation | The posts are voted by the users. The votes are cast based on how important the news is and is then segregated and viewed according to the votes. | To get important tweets, you must follow the person and the tweet must be trending. So it is decided by the public and not by the users. |
| Following | One doesn’t have to follow a person or a group to be able to access the posts. They only need to follow the sub-reddit or the community to receive similar news. | It is necessary to follow a person to be able to view their tweets and to be able to retweet or vote on them. |
| Privacy | It does not give any details about the individual who are posting other than their username that need not be their name. | The username can be different from the individual’s actual name but it is necessary to give a bio about the profile user. |
What is Reddit?
Reddit is a news aggregation website that is also used for content rating and discussion. There are only about 2.3 M registered users of Reddit according to the website.
Only the registered members can share posts on Reddit and they are voted based on the topic and importance of the news. These posts can be in the form of links, images or other similar media.
The important fact to note is that one can collect information from other websites to post on Reddit. So only relevant and verified news is displayed by the users. Reddit also maintains users anonymity.
This is helpful especially in the case of people who want to make new friends or want someone to talk to without revealing their identity. They can talk to and follow communities of their interest instead of an individual.
What is Twitter?
Twitter is a microblogging website which also provides social networking services. There are about 200M registered users on Twitter. So it has a greater reach than Reddit.
Like Reddit, only registered users can post tweets on Twitter and the unregistered users can only read them. Other registered users can also tweet, retweet and like the posted tweet.
Though this platform is also used for providing news and important message, it is not easily accessible. This is because they are displayed according to the on-going trends.
So even if important news is to be publicized through Twitter, it is not possible unless it is already trending on Twitter. The trends are decided by the public and the editors of Twitter.
Main Differences Between Reddit and Twitter
- Twitter and Reddit are websites that collect news in the form of posts. But Twitter is only a microblogging and social networking service website. They tweets tweeted need not always be true. On the other hand, Reddit is a social news aggregation website where there are content rating and discussion services.
- Reddit is dependent on the users of the website. They need to not be registered users. Whereas, Twitter is dependent on the general public who are registered profile users of Twitter along with their editors.
- The segregation and maintenance of the posts are also different for the two. In the case of Reddit, the posts are voted on by the users depending on the importance of the news or message being delivered. They are then arranged on the website on votes. Whereas on Twitter, the tweet needs to be trending for one to be able to get the post. The trending ones need not always be important.
- The pattern for the following is also different for the two websites. One only needs to follow a community related to the topic that they are searching for news for in Reddit and it would only generate the posts related to those topics in the feed. The news would reach much faster. In the case of Twitter, you need to follow an individual or a group. If you need tweets related to music, you will have to follow the artists itself.
- There is privacy in the case of Reddit. The only information that is displayed of the user is their username. The username need not match their actual name and can be anything random. Though this is possible in Twitter as well, it requires one to fill a bio about themselves. So the anonymity is reduced on Twitter.
Conclusion
Twitter and Reddit are two different websites that are used for different purposes. Twitter is used for creating hashtags and trends while checking news and tweets about your favourite artist or other such personalities. But Reddit is used for spreading awareness and important news only
References
- Where should one get news updates: Twitter or Reddit – ScienceDirect
- An evaluation of document clustering and topic modelling in two online social networks: Twitter and Reddit – ScienceDirect