Over the past two years I’ve become absorbed with Reddit. I became uninterested in the things happening around me. I stopped caring about the opinions of those around me because I thought I had the ultimate opinion of society at my fingertips. I was wrong.

My obsession with reddit destroyed my social skills. It destroyed my ability to relate to those around me. It made me self-conscious, but also made me think I knew everything. I started living my life by the rules of the internet and not by the social rules of those around me. I stopped being interested in my family. I stopped being interested in my work. I stopped being interested in my relationships. I stopped being interested in my friends. And as I became more and more disinterested in the world, the more I turned to Reddit. The more I turned to Reddit, the more I became disinterested with the world. It became a viscous cycle, until last spring.

In my computer science class I met a person who changed me. He started helping me to relearn social norms. I started to understand how much I’ve changed. At the time I didn’t realize it, but he was saving me from myself. I was addicted, and he could see that. With him, I started living my life again. I started to relearn how to be social. My social anxiety started to fade. I got a girlfriend. She helped me realize the places I’d gone wrong. she helped me realize that I’d lost connection with my family and my friends. She helped me start to care about my school work. Together, these two helped me cure my addiction.

I’m here now to admit to everyone here, including myself, that I was addicted to Reddit. I thought I didn’t have an addictive personality type. I was wrong. An addiction is an addiction no matter what the addiction is to. Anything can be addicting if you let it. Any addiction can destroy your life.

In September I removed Reddit from my phone. I made a pact with myself that I wouldn’t come to Reddit to browse. I decided that life in the real world is more important than life on the internet.

I’m incredibly thankful for everything that the people of Reddit have done for me. I’ve learned so many things here, I’ve met so many amazing people and seen so many amazing things, but it’s time for me to move on with my life. Thank you to everyone who I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, I’m glad I had the chance to. I’ll be back in the future occasionally, but for now I have to go. Goodbye Reddit, thanks for everything.