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

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Aren't forums technically social media as well?