Do you consider Lemmy/Reddit (and similar platforms) to be social media?

I had this discussion with a friend, and we really couldn’t reach a consensus.

My friend thinks Lemmy (and other Reddit-like platforms) is social media because you’re interacting with other people, liking/disliking submissions, and all the content is user-generated.

I think it isn’t because you’re not following individual people, just communities/topics. Though I concede there are some aspects of social media present, I feel that overall it’s not because my view of social media is that you’re primarily following individuals.

In my view, these link aggregator + comment platforms are more like an evolution of forums which both my friend and I agreed don’t meet the criteria to be considered social media (though they maintain that Reddit-like platforms are social media while I do not).

So I’m asking Lemmy now to weigh in to help settle this friendly debate.

Edit: Thanks everyone! From the comments, it sounds like my friend and I are both right and both wrong. lol. Feel free to keep chiming in, but I have to go do the 9-5 thing that pays my mortgage and cloud hosting bills.

Nemo,

“social media” is the rebranded name for what they used to call “Web 2.0”, which refers to websites where the content both comes from users and is associated with user accounts.

Both reddit and lemmy clearly fit the bill just as much as livejournal and blogger do.

9point6,

It’s all social media as the content of the site is generated by users interacting with each other.

The difference you’ve identified is between individualist & content-focused social media.

Most networks are the individualist kind, you follow people and they post about their lives for the most part

Reddit & lemmy are primarily content focused social media as you follow topics and post about them

snooggums, (edited )
@snooggums@midwest.social avatar

Primarily anonymous forum style communication are social media like bicycles, scooters, and skateboards are vehicles.

Technically yes, but not really what people think about when they talk about vehicles.

BolexForSoup, (edited )
BolexForSoup avatar

asdfasfaf

gregorum,

Not exactly. Lemmy (like Reddit) is a social news/link aggregator. So it’s not social media per se, but it’s certainly social media adjacent.

RedditWanderer,

Lmao because you changed media to news/links it’s somehow adjacent?

I can’t believe the number of comments like this one. All these online platforms are social media

Social media websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.

gregorum,

Lemme isn’t a social network like Facebook or Instagram or TikTok

RedditWanderer,

Facebook isn’t like instagram, instagram isn’t like tiktok, tiktok isn’t like lemmy, Lemmy isn’t like Twitter, but they are all social media.

When people find communities like making bread or wtv and share tips and pictures, that’s networking. Plenty of support communities too.

Most create content, and post it publicly for other social circles to see their media. It’s social media lol

gregorum,

you’re using a pretty arbitrary definition for your opinion, and i disagree.

RedditWanderer,

Ah yes, the arbitrary definitions of the dictionary are my opinion. Well formed argument

gregorum,

Being petulant and throwing a tantrum isn’t really a good argument either.

RedditWanderer,

So now i’m “throwing a tantrum” because saying I was inventing definitions (from the dictionary) didn’t work. Seems like youre the one throwing a tantrum because you were wrong. My argument is fine and far from pedantic. Saying “news and links” aren’t “media” is what’s pedantic

gregorum,

Lol

originalucifer,
@originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com avatar

Most create content, and post it publicly for other social circles to see their media. It's social media lol

this isnt even kind of true. most users of these systems post nothing. the content posters are a very small, valuable contingent compared to the lurkers/viewers.

RedditWanderer,

Yeah that’s a badly written sentence. “Most post for other social circles to see their media when they create content”.

Doesn’t change the arguments that this is social media. Lemmings and reditors just like to feel special

originalucifer,
@originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com avatar

so the term social media involves any written word where more than one person can see it. got it.

RedditWanderer,

Essentially , but that wouldn’t be totally correct, youre framing it that way to make a strawman. The definition is:

Social media websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.

So written words, shared on a platform made to exchange words and images publicly for others to discuss/comment on, if you really don’t want to use the dictionary.

illi,

I’ve never seen Reddit as social media, more like a forum. Though I felt it was getting more like social media in recent years. But in one discussion such as this is was pointed out that forums pretty much are social media, they just existed before the term existed.

Then it dawned on me. Reddit didn’t become more like social media - it always was one. It was just the enshitification that made it more like the other social media that I was noticing.

Lemmy is medium through which we are having social interactions. So yeah.

Boozilla,
@Boozilla@lemmy.world avatar

I think it’s possible to use it like social media and a few people do. One obvious/dumb example would be Lord Douchewad himself: spez.

However, IMHO 99.9999% of people who use it anonymously are social media adjacent, but not on social media.

I can see good arguments to the contrary. Semantics.

ptz,
@ptz@dubvee.org avatar

Yeah, I agree it’s likely just a matter of semantics.

Lol, what started this discussion was that I said I didn’t use any social media and my buddy was like, “What? You’re on Lemmy all the time”.

Boozilla,
@Boozilla@lemmy.world avatar

I get that same gotcha from people, too. Even if they are technically correct, they should be a good friend and acknowledge what you really meant. Flexing on Facebook or LinkedIn or whatever is very different from shitposting on here or reddit.

It’s just awkward and unnecessary to have to say “verified user social media versus anonymous social media” when we can lump Meta, X, and Microsoft under Social Media as a blanket term.

I guess the blanket term for reddit and Lemmy and 4chan type sites could be “meme sites” or “link sharing sites” or whatever.

We need a cool new term for it, one that is easy to say and memorable. Fediverse is pretty cool, but only applies to a subset of those.

ptz,
@ptz@dubvee.org avatar

We need a cool new term for it, one that is easy to say and memorable.

Someone else in this thread used the term “nonsense aggregator” and I think that’s my new favorite word for it.

Boozilla,
@Boozilla@lemmy.world avatar

I love it!

ccunning, (edited )

I think you’re both right. It’s really a semantic argument over what ‘social’ means in the phrase ’social network’.

For me I tend to agree with your interpretation. I suspect it’s because the phrase came into popular use(see Google Trend screenshot below) and in reference to the Xengas, MySpaces, and Facebooks of the world that were user-centric rather than the forums and BBS type paradigms that were more topic centric.

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/acbb6e0b-b09a-40d8-a7d6-a2e506fc6473.jpeg

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_social_media

darkdemize,

I prefer to think of them as antisocial media.

credo,

This is due to the anonymity of the situation and is the same direction my own answer went. I’m betting I know where this question came from, and I’d also bet courts would lean the other direction, based on the intent.

ptz,
@ptz@dubvee.org avatar

If I have to concede this argument to my buddy, that’s how I’m going to do it: antisocial media 😆

NeptuneOrbit,

So yes i do think it is social media. But they are more akin to the old internet, or Facebook before it got massive and bad.

For exampke? There is not a massive algorithm, especially a personalized algorithm (obviously Top and Hot are technically algorithms, but they democratically place popular posts to anyone who hasn’t blocked/is following the community).

For many comparisons they are obviously social media, but for other types of comparisons I don’t think it’s a great match.

sanguinepar,
@sanguinepar@lemmy.world avatar

I would say yes, it’s a form of social media. An online place where, media and ideas can be shared by anyone (subject to membership requirements if any), and where there’s a built-in way for the public to discuss and rate those shared items.

Asudox,
@Asudox@lemmy.world avatar

No, not at all. I don’t consider forums social media. Something like Kbin might fall into the social media category though.

BaalInvoker,

We are, somehow, socializing here. And here is a kind of media. So, yes, it is a social media.

YouTube is also a social media.

Social media is a generic concept and should not be limited to Facebook/Instagram-like platforms.

ptz,
@ptz@dubvee.org avatar

That’s basically my friend’s argument. And I can see your/their point.

My argument against it basically boils down to the scope of what you follow. Following a group/community vs individual users. e.g. If I posted this on a forum back in 1997, we’d be having this discussion in a similar manner (though probably not threaded).

That, and “social media” carries a kind of stigma from the engagement algorithms they all use. Granted, that’s not a requirement for something to be technically social media, but it’s definitely something most people associate with it.

BaalInvoker,

Algorithms is a consequence. Most of social medias are profitable, so they want you to be engaged as much as possible. At the beginning of Facebook or even the late Orkut, they were only a simple platform with no algorithm that only shows stuff like a showcase.

But as soon as Facebook starts to make money showing ads, algorithms started to become a thing. But look, it was a social media already.

Also, was Orkut a social media? Cause it was really close from what Reddit/Lemmy is today.

About forums I think there is a subtle difference. Forums are, generally speaking, communities driven with on purpose only, inside another website. For example, we can enter Acer website and go to the forums, which is used to talk about Acer products and support. Any other topic is off-topic, therefore deleted.

When forums are aggregated into a huge platform that can have different communities, with easy to-go click and follow this community, there is no specific topic and you can join any type of content you want with only one account, I call it social media, cause it’s different enough from forums and the main purpose is people interacting with each other

PP_BOY_,
@PP_BOY_@lemmy.world avatar

My thoughts is that I come here for content, not people, so there’s no social aspect to it.

souperk,
@souperk@reddthat.com avatar

IMO Lemmy is a social media, it allows people to socialize over shared interests. It doesn’t need to facilitate IRL connections, even though they are likely to happen.

NeoNachtwaechter,

If it is like writing on toilet walls,
then it is social media.

ptz, (edited )
@ptz@dubvee.org avatar

That’s an interesting and not inaccurate comparison lol.

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