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.

TheGalacticVoid ,

I don't think they are. In my view, social media is either personal ( i.e. pictures on Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat ) or short + very mainstream ( Twitter, TikTok). Reddit has too many niches that collectively make up an enormous chunk of the platform, plus it is very anonymous. I'd argue that the same is true of YouTube, and a lot of the content is closer to TV and journalism.

Juice ,

Lemmy is social media. Reddit is sociopath media

Mastengwe ,

I don’t know what else you’d call it.

funkless_eck ,

pee pee poo poo media

someguy3 ,

I think it's a massive forum.

I think of social media as Facebook where it's your real name and contacts who you interact with (primarily anyway).

But this is any number of topics you can go in and out of, with a huge array of strangers that you may or may not interact with again. More links, discussion, specialities.

You can get into precise definitions to force Lemmy/Reddit into social media, but I'm still forum.

eyy ,

Aren't forums technically social media as well?

Blackmist ,

Yes, they just don't do the whole personal algorithm thing.

lazycouchpotato ,
@lazycouchpotato@lemmy.world avatar

To me they are social media.

You can also follow topics/communities on other platforms, and on Reddit you can follow people/accounts.

There's not much difference.

Obi ,
@Obi@sopuli.xyz avatar

Yeah it's more like a sliding scale where some platforms are deeply about following people, and some about topics, but I'm the end it's all social media.

I think one aspect OP didn't talk about is anonymity, for me the biggest differentiator is that on lemmy/Reddit you have no idea who the accounts are most of the time (and more importantly, nobody knows who you are).

davidagain ,

I think they're antisocial media. Reddit more than lemmy, though, which feels a bit like a community sometimes.

uriel238 ,
@uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

It's social media and how social media can be a useful utility without preying on its user base by selling info or advertising shoddy products or whatever.

The term social media is descriptive of an interactive web client like a chat forum. It's not necessarily bad the way propaganda is not necessarily false or malicious.

hal_5700X ,
@hal_5700X@sh.itjust.works avatar

Yeah.

nfsu2 ,
@nfsu2@feddit.cl avatar

I do not, while yes you can socialize I think it intended to be used as an aggregator unlike other sites. Much like you can discuss(forum) and shop in other social media sites.

xkforce , (edited )

Op you can follow Reddit and Lemmy users just the same as on Facebook or Twitter. So by your own definition, Reddit and Lemmy are forms of social media.

PhlubbaDubba ,

I believe it's in the same family of web environment as social media, but not necessarily the same clade of it.

Like comparing different romance languages.

krowbear ,

I feel like it's similar to social media, but serves a different purpose at least in my use of it. With social media sites like Facebook and Instagram I'm mostly interacting with people I know in real life. To me it seems closer to Youtube, because for both of those it connects me more to larger cultural or artistic things, rather than what's going on with my friends.

JadenSmith ,

Many people here are being incredibly pedantic about the words "social media", forgetting entirely that "social media" is a term invented to describe a certain type of website. Forums existed before the term was being widely used, for example, and whilst they would fit a dictionary definition of the words within the term they were always considered a separate entity to what was established as being 'social media' (e.g.: Myspace, Bebo, Facebook, etc.).

I'm with you, OP.

Opisek ,

This. Maybe I'm getting old but I really get frustrated when people start calling everything social media. In particular, I keep hearing people group YouTube and communicators like Discord or even freaking WhatsApp under this label.

ThrowawayPermanente ,

Yes. I also consider forums to be social media, but the good kind.

RedIce25 ,

Fell like it could be used as social media, but I tend to use it as a forum

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