It feels like social media to me. It has upvotes, replies, notifications, comments, a feed… If it’s not a social media then neither is Reddit, and at that point the word stops being meaningful. Look right now we’re even arguing about semantics just like any good social media
Look right now we’re even arguing about semantics just like any good social media
Semantics matter when they’re being used to restrict your rights. The current “definition” of social media was spread by a person trying to get a business degree, and they just made up a definition that happens to include pretty much the entirety of the internet. Newscasters that didn’t know any better started calling anything that made it to the news “social media” even though we had a perfectly fine definition before that. Forums existed long before social media did, forums are not social media, and both Lemmy and Reddit are forums of forums, not social media.
Don’t get me wrong, Reddit is terrible. But so is 4chan and I don’t think anyone is calling 4chan social media.
The sole purpose, or a significant purpose, of the service is to enable online social interaction between two or more end-users.
You can’t argue that a news site that happens to have a complementary comments section is the sole purpose of the service. It’s not comparable to Reddit and Facebook at all. Look I hate the social media ban as much as you, but that’s a completely separate issue you just mixed up in there.
Governments banning websites is a whole other kettle of fish I don’t really want to get into right now. Social media has always been a vague definition. It’s like porn, you can’t define it, but you know it when you see it.
4chan is a forum because it lacks the features that make it social media-y. There’s no upvotes. There’s no feed. It’s just a list of unstructured posts and comments. What would happen if you added upvotes, comment threads, direct messages, friends list, an algorithmic home page, to 4chan? Oh look it’s Reddit. Which is a social media.
You can’t just change the definition of words because you don’t like governments restricting them. The actual problem is governments attacking your rights, it has nothing at all to do with social media. If instead of restricting social media they restricted specifically “comment sections”, would you be arguing with me on the formal definition of a comment section?
Again I get that you hate the restrictions. I think they’re dumb too and I live in AU. But the definition of social media is not the problem here.
You can’t just change the definition of words because you don’t like governments restricting them. The actual problem is governments attacking your rights, it has nothing at all to do with social media. If instead of restricting social media they restricted specifically “comment sections”, would you be arguing with me on the formal definition of a comment section?
here’s the thing. the definition didn’t include forums until news casters started talking about it. No one on the internet called forums social media. No one called forums social networks. News casters that didn’t understand what they were talking about were the ones changing the definition. It’s a bit like newscasters talking about tide pods like people were actually eating them. They were naive, tricked, and didn’t understand the culture around it. So falsehoods were spread and now we’re in the situation we’re in.
No one in their right mind thinks of GM’s Blog as Social Media… and yet that’s literally where the dictionary definition of social media comes from. A business student wrote a paper and claimed that GM’s blog would be considered social media. The entire Webster’s dictionary definition rests on one person who claimed some absolutely batshit insane things as social media.
But that’s not what people that use the internet actually think. Like you said “It’s like porn, you can’t define it, but you know it when you see it.” And forums aren’t social media. If they were, then everything is social media and the term is useless.
Myself and everyone I know considers Reddit to be a social media. Along with TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Lemmy. Some grey area ones are Discord and Snapchat. So if you work backwards from there, the Aus Gov definition you listed above is actually pretty reasonable.
I agree that the forums I used to ask for help in Diablo 2 don’t count as social media, and they are rightly excluded in the definition you listed. So you’re really just trying to argue that Reddit and Lemmy is a forum instead of a social media, which you’re entitled to your opinion of course, but most people will disagree with you.
It feels like social media to me. It has upvotes, replies, notifications, comments, a feed… If it’s not a social media then neither is Reddit, and at that point the word stops being meaningful. Look right now we’re even arguing about semantics just like any good social media
Correct
Semantics matter when they’re being used to restrict your rights. The current “definition” of social media was spread by a person trying to get a business degree, and they just made up a definition that happens to include pretty much the entirety of the internet. Newscasters that didn’t know any better started calling anything that made it to the news “social media” even though we had a perfectly fine definition before that. Forums existed long before social media did, forums are not social media, and both Lemmy and Reddit are forums of forums, not social media.
Don’t get me wrong, Reddit is terrible. But so is 4chan and I don’t think anyone is calling 4chan social media.
You can’t argue that a news site that happens to have a complementary comments section is the sole purpose of the service. It’s not comparable to Reddit and Facebook at all. Look I hate the social media ban as much as you, but that’s a completely separate issue you just mixed up in there.
Governments banning websites is a whole other kettle of fish I don’t really want to get into right now. Social media has always been a vague definition. It’s like porn, you can’t define it, but you know it when you see it.
4chan is a forum because it lacks the features that make it social media-y. There’s no upvotes. There’s no feed. It’s just a list of unstructured posts and comments. What would happen if you added upvotes, comment threads, direct messages, friends list, an algorithmic home page, to 4chan? Oh look it’s Reddit. Which is a social media.
You can’t just change the definition of words because you don’t like governments restricting them. The actual problem is governments attacking your rights, it has nothing at all to do with social media. If instead of restricting social media they restricted specifically “comment sections”, would you be arguing with me on the formal definition of a comment section?
Again I get that you hate the restrictions. I think they’re dumb too and I live in AU. But the definition of social media is not the problem here.
here’s the thing. the definition didn’t include forums until news casters started talking about it. No one on the internet called forums social media. No one called forums social networks. News casters that didn’t understand what they were talking about were the ones changing the definition. It’s a bit like newscasters talking about tide pods like people were actually eating them. They were naive, tricked, and didn’t understand the culture around it. So falsehoods were spread and now we’re in the situation we’re in.
No one in their right mind thinks of GM’s Blog as Social Media… and yet that’s literally where the dictionary definition of social media comes from. A business student wrote a paper and claimed that GM’s blog would be considered social media. The entire Webster’s dictionary definition rests on one person who claimed some absolutely batshit insane things as social media.
But that’s not what people that use the internet actually think. Like you said “It’s like porn, you can’t define it, but you know it when you see it.” And forums aren’t social media. If they were, then everything is social media and the term is useless.
Myself and everyone I know considers Reddit to be a social media. Along with TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Lemmy. Some grey area ones are Discord and Snapchat. So if you work backwards from there, the Aus Gov definition you listed above is actually pretty reasonable.
I agree that the forums I used to ask for help in Diablo 2 don’t count as social media, and they are rightly excluded in the definition you listed. So you’re really just trying to argue that Reddit and Lemmy is a forum instead of a social media, which you’re entitled to your opinion of course, but most people will disagree with you.