My advice is to drop that business like a hot potato and use Reddit only for reading- never for posting.
The downvote system fosters a nasty hivemind dogpile mentality and plays up that bitter shot of endorphin you get for telling someone that they're wrong, just without the effort of composing a rebuttal that doesn't make you sound like a crazy person. Shit's unhealthy.
It can be okay for smaller communities, but things quickly get out of hand once a given sub has enough eyes on it.
And that's to say nothing of the rest of the cancer, like hordes of pedantic bots that exist only to correct people, infinite chains of mad-lib bullshit infesting the top half of every popular thread, or hammer-happy mods with acute personal bias. Dystopian is right, my man.
Upvotes, likes, whatever you want to call it, they're nice to have but it doesn't really mean anything in the long run. Your words are what people will remember you by.
I wish I could like this twice, as well as typing this response. Straight truth.
i don't look, i like something i want to and don't give a shit what happens next
get your dopamine from a competitive video game with your bros, or whatever else gets you off, don't get it from social media
While I agree with this too, have a small shot of dopamine on me in the form of a like