While bots seem like the obvious answer, there’s also a possibility of demographic shift over time towards a younger and more mainstream commenting/posting population. More young adults with no baggage asking for advice means cutting ties is more likely to be a novel suggestion for them and has less friction, and more young adults (and, frankly, kids) in the commenting population means less nuance, more “edge”, and generally more advocating for hot-takes that have attracted upvotes in the past.
Probably also related to engagement. More people click on a horror story. It’s easy to draft something thats massive red flags and then be like “uh oh but i dont know what to do” and then farm comments and upvotes. Bots probably post these all the time.
While bots seem like the obvious answer, there’s also a possibility of demographic shift over time towards a younger and more mainstream commenting/posting population. More young adults with no baggage asking for advice means cutting ties is more likely to be a novel suggestion for them and has less friction, and more young adults (and, frankly, kids) in the commenting population means less nuance, more “edge”, and generally more advocating for hot-takes that have attracted upvotes in the past.
Probably also related to engagement. More people click on a horror story. It’s easy to draft something thats massive red flags and then be like “uh oh but i dont know what to do” and then farm comments and upvotes. Bots probably post these all the time.