I don't know if they try and add these things to their portfolio, but it definitely makes a perverse sense, ie 'look my writing even fooled X people on reddit!'
Honestly I believe nothing anymore without some digging, and really it's something that's gotten worse as every year I feel like we are living in a world of lies- politics, ads, fucking everything.
Now, I do honestly believe there are many people that are legitimately unhappy and venting in that sub- I know more than a few people in real life living out some of those stories.
Just...use critical thinking skills. And try not to let it kill you inside. I am become jaded and cynical, but because I'm a realist.
Coz Im struggling to see how you could believe that the 99% of overwhelmingly mundane stories about e.g. giving notice or how to deal with health and safety issues at work would become grist for creative writing.
It makes zero sense.
Yes, the boring posts are probably real and I never claimed otherwise. But the posts people remember and engage with are not the boring posts and have a much more mixed track record. There have been cases both of "someone creates updates with an impossible resolution/schedule", "post describing the opposite point of view of a recently popular post comes up" and "post touching on hot-button internet arguments". You can argue that only the first category must be a fake, but the rest pop up with a suspicious frequency.
Similarly, you could see a big jump in the number of legal issues relating to whatever excited bestoflegaladvice recently. It doesn't seem likely that there's a sudden uptick in the number of people who have neighbors cut down their trees, or who have a landlocked property.
