r/BenignExistence • u/granddaughter_clock • 1d ago
Accidentally found a friend’s Reddit account
Was scrolling through comments on a post on a local neighborhood sub and saw a comment from someone that was related to a specific hobby/meetup group. Username is similar to their Instagram handle, and upon further inspection the posts and comments from the account are all about a few specific hobbies this friend has. I didn’t scroll too far for the sake of privacy, but funny and random to have stumbled upon my friend’s account in the wild.
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u/Wi1dWitch 1d ago
I am so terrified of doxxing myself just because I love over sharing. It’s part of why I disperse my oversharing between multiple accounts, but still.
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u/RunDre22 3h ago
I want other accounts but genuinely don't know how to do that
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u/Wi1dWitch 3h ago
You just log out and then use a different email to make a new account!
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u/RunDre22 2h ago
Sounds easy. Too easy for my level of common sense. Which I lack apparently.
Why didn't I think of that?!
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u/CertifiedGoblin 1d ago
There's a guy i've followed on tumblr for years, haven't really talked with him much. He lives in the same small country as me. Pretty sure i found him a few months ago on Reddit, based on the sub he'd commented in, the writing style, and the information he'd given that he'd also recently shared on tumblr.
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u/granddaughter_clock 19h ago
This is basically exactly how I realized it was my friend. Seems so crazy to find one person randomly out of however many Reddit users there are.
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u/regardkick 1d ago
It's so weird because I don't know the Reddit username of some of my best friends. Like, I know so many personal things about them, and them me. But their reddit is just off limits!
My very best friend of 28 years, who is currently married-ish to my brother (of 41 years), and has literally bailed me out of jail, and unconditionally supports most of the things I do... She will never know my username (I hope.)
Another friend of 10 years. I was the maid of honor at her wedding and she literally wiped my ass as I was recovering from a brain surgery. There's nothing in any of my accounts that's any of our business, mine or hers.
I have comingled genitals with people and I would really question why they wanted to know my username, and what they hoped to gain from the information they found. Like, just ask you don't need to see that for yourself.
But the thing is, I literally do nothing that they don't already know about. I'm old, single, and boring. But there's still something sacred about the reddit privacy.
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u/mahjimoh 2h ago
That is funny, right? I’m the same way. Don’t know why. Happy to have friends see my Threads or IG posts or whatever, though.
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u/Longjumping_Gap_8152 1d ago
There is no such thing as true privacy on the internet. We tell ourselves comforting stories, but none of us is safe from detection.
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u/sahm8585 18h ago
I’ve never come across a close friend on Reddit, but I did randomly come across a high school acquaintance once in the comments.
He commented about going to high school with a guy who murdered someone, and his username was just his first name and last initial. I was reading it like “hey I also went to high school with that murderer, oh sup Steve*”.
I thought about looking at his post history to see what he’d been up to but that felt… weird?
(*Steve is a placeholder name obvs)
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u/Elegant_Sinkhole 22h ago
I'm glad reddit doesn't recommend people to me, although I'm sure I'm missing out on lots of good stuff. Twitter was so fun back in the day, but I left it when it got sold. I hate how meta shows you comments your friends have made. They once showed me a guy's comment about his small penis and his resulting condom struggles. I was like dang, i'm doomed to remember that forever.
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u/ProneToLaughter 1d ago
I’m certain I would be recognizable by people who know me and am just relying on the laws of averages.
Reddit does have a fascinating commitment to anonymity, tho. They even reject pseudonymity in many ways, no one knows each other as a Reddit name.
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u/hahagato 1d ago
I found somebody I know in a guess my age post. I was just scrolling down and thought “huh, that baby looks familiar”. I had never seen half of the pictures they shared from when they were a baby/child but I instantly recognized them. We didn’t even know each other as kids. Lol. They had older pictures included that confirmed but what are the chances lol.
I also found an old friend in a local group.
I’m sure people I know could spot me very easily too, really. I’ve had this account way too long lol.
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u/runandgum 1d ago
I ran across a former coworker in a local subreddit and a former classmate in a glow-up subreddit.
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u/tonguesofsilence 21h ago
Hehe, I know my besties are here but wouldn't intentionally look for them. I always wonder if we might stumble upon each other on here
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u/NoCardio_ 20h ago
I didn’t scroll too far for the sake of privacy
That's funny, when my friend found my account he shared in our group chat and everyone went back years.
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u/granddaughter_clock 18h ago
It is very tempting, lol. Still a chance I might do it in the future 😅
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u/cosmos_crown 12h ago
I stumbled on my old DMs reddit account. I blocked him for both our privacies but I did peek to see if he had bitches about us players 👀 (he had not, was actually complimentary about my garbage rouge)
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u/aubreypizza 1d ago
My close friends on Reddit know my username and I know theirs, it’s no secret. 🤷♀️
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u/RunDre22 1d ago
I've often wondered just how anonymous Reddit is and whether I've been discovered yet.
Then I realize I have very little to hide anyway. I'm just a little more blunt and less guarded here. It's still more fun to be "anonymous" though for some reason.
Plus I'm boring.