I'm very curious who these new users of reddit are, and why they are going there. 

I keep telling myself I need to spend more time poking around on reddit, but everytime I do, it's very offputting and I bounce.

Scoresby

I've described Reddit in the past as essentially Usenet 2.0. And as with Usenet, the experience in different groups varies a ton based a bunch of factors (size, moderation, broadness of the topic). I still find some Reddit groups invaluable (even as the site itself has gotten worse), even as the majority of them feel insufferable.