[FrankoDelMar]

I wonder if, thanks to Reddit’s karma economy, the usage of /s is some kind of learned behavior that acts as hedge against downvotes. Did people use /s as much or at all back in the days of forums or other platforms where the visibility of a person’s content didn’t correlate with upvotes?

[metabagel]

It’s no different than emojis. It’s there to bridge the gap between in-person spoken communication and written communication.

Some people hate emojis too.