50 ‘Mildly Interesting’ Things You May Have Never Seen Before, As Shared In This Online Group (New Pics)

Sometimes mild is just the best. That may sound oxymoronic, but haven’t you ever heard the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears? She did not want the most extreme options of anything. The middle of the road, mild options were just right. That’s the appeal of the Mildly Interesting subreddit. We cannot be bombarded with breaking news and life-changing facts constantly. They are fun sometimes, but we would go crazy if we had to take in information like that all the time.

And clearly, mild is quite popular on Reddit, as this group that is “for photos that are, you know, mildly interesting” has over 20 million members. This might be because of how vague the description is, so people can post almost anything in the group. But it is also a fun place to visit because members are never quite sure what they are going to see. The community’s description is also quite humble, as it states, “Aww, cripes. I didn't know I'd have to write a description. How many words is that so far, like a hundred? Soooo, yeah. Mildly interesting stuff. Stuff that interests you. Mildly. It's in the name, ffs.” 

Don’t think that this subreddit is just the Wild West, though. They do have to enforce some rules to ensure that everything is organically, mildly interesting. Rule number one is no memes. “This includes references in titles of your post (e.g. "banana for scale," "potato quality"),” the moderators write. The next rule is no related posts. Basically, if you are referencing another post already on the page, you must do so in the comments of the original post. Makes sense, all threads should be original.

The next few rules are all along the same lines of original content: no x-posts or reposts, original photographs only, and no screenshots. Members are not really supposed to edit their photos either, so everything should be as original and natural as possible. Lastly, “Titles must be exact but concise descriptions.” They are not allowed to add jokes or backstory, and in fact, the moderators write that the titles should be like spoilers for the images. Simple subreddit, simple rules and posts. We can’t have anything too interesting winding up in here.

The idea of mildly interesting topics is beloved by many, even those outside of the 20 million member subreddit. In fact, there is a podcast titled The Mildly Interesting: A Nightly Bedtime Podcast that you can stream on various podcast platforms. To get a bit more insight about the show and hear how it began in the first place, we reached out to the creator and host, Oliver Wilson. "I love listening to podcasts, and my love has passed on to my grandchildren. So much so that my granddaughter would request that I play her whatever I was listening to on Alexa to help her fall asleep whenever she visited," Oliver told Bored Panda. "The problem was I would fall asleep while waiting for her to fall asleep, so I wanted to listen to something that I found a little interesting but didn’t care too much about so I wouldn't mind if I fell asleep. I couldn’t find any bedtime podcast that I liked so I decided to make one of my own for my granddaughter and anyone else who wanted to listen to a podcast while trying to fall asleep."

We then asked Oliver what qualifies as "mildly interesting" to him. "A mildly interesting thing is something that is not very exciting or compelling but is still worth noting or paying attention to. It may be mildly amusing, slightly intriguing, or simply not dull such as the cultivation of almonds (yup, I did an episode on almonds). It is probably not the most important topic to the general public, but it's something to which we should pay attention."

The show also features episodes on oatmeal, blueberries, carousels, buttons, sour candy, roller coasters and more.

We also asked Oliver if he thinks mildly interesting things are underrated. "That's tough to say," he told us. "Some people might find mildly interesting things more intriguing than others who might find them boring. It depends on the person's perspective. But, I have found that when I think I am going to be bored by a topic, I usually find some aspect of it interesting. Or, at least, mildly interesting."

In contrast, we wanted to know what he would consider fascinating in contrast to his show. "Physics. Definitely mind-blowing and would require too much concentration for my bedtime podcast," he says. Fair enough, I think hearing about physics would put me right to sleep without a chance of hearing anything. I would much rather learn a little bit about oatmeal and slowly drift off.