I’ll share mine first.
I had a psych patient one night pile shitty toilet paper next to his toilet overnight. Normally my psych nurse brain would consider this a symptom of disorganized psychosis, EXCEPT!
I remembered an aita post about a conflict between a western OP and his middle eastern roomate trying to figure out why their roommate put their shitty toilet paper in the trash. Turns out many middle eastern toilets can’t handle toilet paper.
Oh and inpatient psychiatry doesn’t provide freestanding hard plastic trashcans (turns out they make great clubs). We gave him one of our freestanding paper bag trashcans and problem solved.
TL;DR; Reddit expanded my cultural knowledge enough to differentiate disorganized psychotic behaviors from a genuine cultural difference. Thanks reddit!
Anyone have any similar examples of positive exchanges of knowledge or culture using reddit?
I’ve learned a lot over the 7 years I was on reddit actively.
I feel like I know every random thing about the USA and it’s cultural aspects etc. So much so that when I talk to someone from the USA I I know all things necessary to seem like I’m from the USA too.
A nuanced view about all things that can happen when you take drugs, general dosages with their effects (which is more nuanced than just looking at psychonautwiki or comparable)
Learned to have a better sense of empathy for difficult things for others that aren’t difficult for me
Learned to know when to disengage a conversation when the other person is acting in Bad faith
Oh, the US centric stuff is just funny. If you don’t know for sure, it’s usually safe to assume you’re talking to an American. For instance, if you say stuff about the public transport being really great, and cycling or walking in the city being the best way to get around, you can be pretty sure the people around you don’t understand what you’re talking about.