[picardythird]

I don't think downvotes/emojis work the same way as real life human feedback, at all. On places like reddit, downvotes more often than not incite anger or resentment in the recipient, whereas strong negative feedback in real life is a much more powerful form of feedback that can trigger embarrassment and shame, which at least can lead to self reflection. I's much easier to make a fool of yourself on reddit then in from of living, breathing people.

[bene_legionary]

Being anonymous is a big part of this. There is very little consequence of being controversial online if you're just another person posting (and not, say, a celebrity where your presence means something offline too). The most might be people noticing that one particular person is stirring up trouble (and block them). Offline conversation has the benefit of being in real time. The other person almost has a social obligation to listen and respond. In addition, you know it's a real person that you're talking to (although, with people spending more time online, their real-life etiquette has changed for the worse; people shout, berate and threaten others like there is no consequence). Online conversation is static; you can ignore it, and nobody will know. Anybody can read it at any time as if you were continously shouting it. Nobody is obligated to respond or pay attention. You have no idea if the person responding or commenting is real, or is just a bot, or is a troll trying to make you irrational and angry. It's terribly confusing.

[AussieWog93]

>On places like reddit, downvotes more often than not incite anger or resentment in the recipient

I'm not sure the reaction to IRL disapproval is much different, at least for the people who receive a lot of it.

[musicale]

It's extremely annoying to spend time thinking about and carefully writing something only to have it downvoted by unknown people for unknown reasons.

And anything vaguely political or controversial is the kiss of death for downvote systems because it triggers upvote/downvote wars where downvote becomes "I disagree with this viewpoint (so it must be downvoted to oblivion.)"

[bcherny]

I wonder if the difference is that on Reddit, you can’t see who it was that downvoted you.