I originally joined Reddit in 2011, and in the beginning it was dominated by cat content. It was rare to see a post about dogs. Sometime in the mid 20-teens this phenomenon reversed. It’s always been a “pet theory” of mine that this reversal was due to Reddit becoming mainstream, and that it’s initial nerdy/techie user base preferred cats to dogs.
I think my theory is further supported by Lemmy. It’s pretty clear that most of Lemmy’s user base are techies, and currently it’s dominated by cat content. Just a shower thought. May be wrong.
NOTE: I love dogs and cats. This post isn’t arguing favoritism.
I think this may apply to some cats, but certainly not all. I used to think like you, but I’ve met plenty of cats that clearly have imprinted on their owners.
I think dogs have a greater capacity for this bonding, especially on average. But dogs understand humans/our body language better than any other species, including other great apes.
We co-evolved with wolves/dogs for thousands of years before cats started being domesticated. We started domesticating wolves when we were nomadic hunter-gatherers. It wasn’t until we had our agricultural revolution and started settling and farming that we started domestication of other species.
It’s believed we domesticated farm animals like goats before cats as well. It is believed that our domestication of cats began once we started having food/grain storage, and pests like mice started showing up. Cats started to hang around the food storage eating the pests, which is what is believed to lead to the domestication of cats.
I love animals, including cats, but I’m so allergic to cats that my throat will close up… I’m so glad that I don’t have that allergy for dogs, because I definitely prefer them over cats. There’s simply no other animal that can interact with us on the level of dogs. We’ve coevolved with them for at least 20 - 30k years!
Not all cats are heartless assholes, but cats inherently lack the deep level of communication and bonding that is possible with dogs. I really value that level of connection that cannot be had from any other species. A cat doesn’t watch a person’s eyes glance away, and then proceed to look where our eyes are pointing. Hardly any other great apes species are even capable of that level of understanding of human body language.
If that is what you’re going for, dogs cannot be beaten. But that’s not the only factor for people to have an animal. There are definitely times I wish my dogs were more independent/less needy when I’m busy… Cats are a great pet for someone who isn’t able to be present enough for a dog. Some people don’t want a pet like a dog that wants to be with them all the time. They’d rather have a pet that is content doing it’s own thing.
You can compare and contrast dogs and cats all day, but at the end of the day it’s all just a matter of personal preference.
Edit: Some sources to back my claims. Dog domestication. Cat domestication. Canine comprehension of body language.
Comments like this demonstrate how people just don’t understand cats.
If you don’t bond with your cat that is a YOU problem. You are doing something very wrong.
Dogs can be just as destructive if not more destructive than cats.
I think ultimately you lack experience and have never had your own cat.
I think it’s great that you love dogs so much, but every single person I’ve ever met who thinks dogs are flat out better than cats are people who always lack experience and don’t actually know any better because they are ignorant and won’t accept anything else.
I don’t think he’s saying they’re better, he’s saying it’s a preference thing and he prefers dogs because you can bond more with them.
Cats are way easier to take care of because they don’t need as much attention, which makes them better for a lot of people
Yeah, that’s not just a preference.
That’s not my comment, genius…️
I thought you cat people were supposed to be the tech guys! How come so many of you can’t even keep track of who you’re arguing with here!?
It’s because their minds are riddled with toxoplasma gondii, obviously
Did you respond to the right user?..
I have had cats in my household when I was a kid before my allergies presented. I’ve been around cats a lot (wearing a mask) as many of my family has them.
Maybe you should refrain from pre-judging me and jumping to conclusions. I’ve cited the claims I’ve made above. Whether you want to believe it or not, dogs are capable of understanding human body language better than cats, or any other species on our planet. I value that deep level level of connection, which definitively exists.
Cats are like a mirror. If you love cats, they will give you love back. If you respect them, they will respect your boundaries. If you’re strict with them and want them to respect you just for being their owner, they will look at you like wtf and won’t care about you at all. If you mistreat them once, they’ll remember.
I agree with everything you’re saying. I responded to a user hating on cats telling them not all cats are like that. But because I shared scientific information about dogs/domestication, people are responding to me like I’m the user who was hating on cats.
I love cats. I am just severely allergic to them and admittedly have a preference for dogs. I also acknowledge science and anthropology. Apparently some people are just biased and only capable of emotional reasoning in the face of information they don’t like. I was not saying dogs are an objectively better pet; that is down to subjective individual preference. But dogs having a greater ability to read human body language than cats is supported by overwhelming scientific evidence. I personally value that in particular. It doesn’t make them the best pet for everyone tho.
I just find that subject fascinating and wanted to share. Crazy cat people can stop acting like I hate cats now… Talk about blinded by emotions…
This thread right here is the reason I think that Lemmy users can be just as toxic as Redditors, They are just dealing with folks now that they disagree with.
For sure… but I think the percentage of extremely toxic users (e.g., racist trolls) on Lemmy pales in comparison to reddit. But this sort of defensive emotional arguing transcends social media and is so pervasive in our societies now…
People have grown conditioned to segregating themselves into echo-chamers thru various social media over the last 2 decades. But I see that in the real world now (in the US) in work settings, families, fucking beer brands…
We have grown to insulate ourselves from opinions and information we don’t like. We’re conditioned to believe that disagreement in conversation is a bad thing and unhealthy. We have grown to both struggle to differentiate opinion from fact, and to internalize our opinions/beliefs so deeply ingrained into our personality, that we interpret any challenges to our beliefs as a personal attack.
This makes dissenting on the most trivial issues immediately devolve into emotional reasoning, personal attacks, and just toxic behavior… Our society needs to deprogram the dysfunctional thinking instilled in us largely thru social media. Our levels of empathy in our societies have deteriorated in conjunction with the growth of social media into what it is today.
I don’t know how we change this when it’s so pervasive throughout our world… I guess acknowledging the problem exists is a start…
Completely agree on all points. I think that cities dealt with this quite a bit early on as they grew and they largely have not solved internal conflicts outside of causing people to leave and go to other cities/areas. If we cannot solve it or mitigate it in real life outside of creating dedicated spaces, how can we get after it virtually? Maybe there are some lessons learned from real life that would be easier to implement on the internet.
“i literallly meow just for you”
nah
Yeah you definitely know better than the cumulative research of scientists around the world…
Glad you cleared that up!
yeah those would like to distance themselves from the nonsense YOU just made up rn. Citing non-related articles wont help you defend YOUR point.
All you’re telling me is that you need to work on your reading comprehension ability…
I’m not going to perform a literature review for you. If you don’t trust my words or links, look into it for yourself. Just try not to engage in confirmation bias with your search queries.
Well unlucky for you i will. And i conclude that you dont need more than celsius room temperature IQ to figure out that its a rather unscientific idea to make an totalitarian point about cats based on an article for dogs that does not mention cats once. If you wanna discuss your point then im open to do so, but dont try to hide behind other peoples work.
Deceiving approaches like this are the reason people dont trust science anymore.