We Post It, U Reddit: Exploring the Potential of Reddit for Health Interventions Targeting College Populations

Abstract

Reddit is an anonymous social media platform that allows users to create, modify, share, and discuss content. While this platform is widely used by mainstream audiences, little research exists on how Redditors respond to health information when it appears in general, non-health specific forums called subreddits. Guided by media system dependency theory, the purpose of this study was to anonymously intervene on college subreddits to explore how Redditors interacted with messages about smoke-free policy compliance. Two messages were posted two weeks apart on ten college subreddits, yielding 370 comments (per thread range = 66–0) and 552 Karma points (per thread range = 123–0). A content analytic approach was employed, identifying eight content themes, and classifying message tone. The most popular themes were general smoking [n = 85], animosity toward smoke-free policies/compliance [n = 68], and smoke-free policy/compliance support [n = 65]). Most comments expressed a neutral tone [n = 196]. Data suggest that Redditors are willing to interact with health content on their college subreddits to varying degrees, especially if this content conforms to norms of the subreddit and/or platform. Implications from the findings suggest important considerations for use of Reddit as a future site for health interventions.