I originally joined Reddit in 2011, and in the beginning it was dominated by cat content. It was rare to see a post about dogs. Sometime in the mid 20-teens this phenomenon reversed. It’s always been a “pet theory” of mine that this reversal was due to Reddit becoming mainstream, and that it’s initial nerdy/techie user base preferred cats to dogs.

I think my theory is further supported by Lemmy. It’s pretty clear that most of Lemmy’s user base are techies, and currently it’s dominated by cat content. Just a shower thought. May be wrong.

NOTE: I love dogs and cats. This post isn’t arguing favoritism.

  • Metallibus@lemmy.world
    8·
    1 year ago

    I disagree with most of the other bits too. They seem to be tendencies of cats people don’t take the proper care of.

    I’ve owned two cats for over ten years. They’ve destroyed a couple things. My parents have had 5 cats for about ten years and they’ve barely had anything destroyed. My neighbor who has had a dog for about a year and a half has had multiple pieces of furniture ripped, and many things around her house ruined/destroyed.

    Cats are solitary predators and not pack animals, so they are motivated more by their own needs and desires, but saying “don’t care about you whatsoever” just sounds like someone who’s never had a real relationship with a cat or doesn’t understand the way they exhibit their care.

    I’ve trained like 5 different cats to fetch, multiple cats not to go in certain areas of the house, not to chew certain things, etc. Most people try to train cats like they would train a dog - through showing disapproval towards behavior etc, which, as mentioned above, is just not what motivates a cat.