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Desiree Perez

Dr. Cynthia Aradillas

ENGL 1301- 207

03 February 2023

An Online Advice Community

“Am I The Asshole?” For some, this is a very important question to ask. It’s needed for

the sake of perspective and resolving conflict. Today, people across the world unite, and often

come together to ask and answer this question to and for each other. “How is this possible?” One

may ask. This is possible through the internet, and more specifically through a community that is

continually growing and rising in popularity, the subreddit community called “Am I The

Asshole?” Or AITA for short. This community is growing so big and popular to participate in

that it has now traveled across multiple platforms, or genres. People make videos on youtube

now of them just reading people’s posts, giving their opinion on the matter, and also allowing for

others to comment and give their opinions as well and it’s very popular. Similarly, there are

pages on Facebook and other social media platforms that post the stories and have similar

interactions separate from the interactions that happen on the platform of reddit itself. The

community enjoys communicating within the genre to ask for advice, give advice, and observe

and interact with the content.

The AITA community uses the genre to ask for advice. This advice can be openended but

is typically revolved around one question, whether or not they were in the wrong in a conflict.

The person who posted the advice will give background information, talk about the situation and

where the conflict happened, and then ask the question of whether they were at fault. For
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example, I read one post that was about a man who was asking if he was at fault in a conflict he

had with his daughter. The situation was he’d recently reconnected and was becoming close with

a half-brother he didn’t know he had, his daughter was also really enjoying getting to know her

cousins. They were enjoying their newfound family members especially, because they weren’t

close to her family they had. The situation arose when the man’s daughter asked if he could feel

out what their political views were for her because she’s gay. She was scared they’d feel

negatively about her if they found out she was gay and was worried about the negativity, but also

that they could potentially become hostile. He at first had told her she should do it herself as she

was an adult, but later edited his post to say he’d realized his wrongs and had apologized to his

daughter after receiving an overwhelming amount of advice suggesting he may have been at

fault. With the help of receiving advice from that community he was able to gain some

perspective and benefit his life for the better. When people use that genre and that community to

ask for advice, they can trust they’ll receive the perspective and guidance they needed to resolve

their conflicts and better themselves or their situation.

The AITA community uses the genre to give advice. Not everyone is brave enough to

post their own personal issues they need help figuring out, or better yet, maybe they’re fortunate

enough to not be in a conflict they need help resolving, but the community would be nothing if

not for its popular genre of people using the community to give advice. This part has been

explored in video, podcast, and commenting formats, but it’s become extremely popular as

people seem to enjoy being able to give their perspective on different situations. They either

reprimand the person who posted if they believe the poster is at fault or provide encouraging

words if they believe the poster is not at fault. Above all however, they give advice. For

example, a teenage girl posted a story asking whether or not she was the bad guy in a situation
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where she was moving away from home because she was tired of how much responsibility her

parents put on her to watch her 3 very young siblings, cook, clean, and maintain the household.

The poor girl likely felt like the bad guy because of how her parents made her feel about the

situation and what they said in response to her refusing to continue that way, but the comments

rushed in from people giving nothing but support. They understood why this girl was questioning

herself, they shared their similar experiences, they comforted and reassured her, and gave her

strategies for how to proceed so she could better her life. The AITA community really enjoys

using the genre to give advice, it makes them feel like they have valuable opinions and like

they’re helping someone.

The AITA community uses the genre for perspective and entertainment. One less direct

way people interact with this genre is by observing. It’s actually one of the most popular ways

people interact and communicate with this community. The aforementioned videos, podcasts,

and comment sections contribute to the AITA genre being active because of who creates them

and their original perception of the advice posts; but the posts, community, and genre thrive

because of the communication existing in relation to those people commenting and giving

advice. For example, I usually neither post nor comment, but I know I and others enjoy reading

the posts asking for advice, reading the comments of people giving their opinions and stories,

and simply reveling in all the unique perspectives. People enjoy observing and interacting with

these posts because they can observe the many perspectives being given in relation to these

testimonies and even add to the comments to potentially engage conversation and healthy debate

about a variety of topics.

To conclude, the AITA community thrives because of the communication they have

within the genre that consists of people asking for advice, giving advice, and engaging. The
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community helps people, provides perspective, and is used as a means of thoughtfulness and

entertainment.