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

submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 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] 7 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I don't think they are, they're more akin to forums.

In my mind, social media is where you follow people and people broadcast their lives. That's the social aspect of it.

With Reddit and Lemmy we follow communities on topics we're interested in.

I do get the arguments for it to be social media but that just makes the category way too broad, as you could argue any site with a comment section is social media.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

as you could argue any site with a comment section is social media.

I disagree with that. If the main purpose of your site is not interaction, so it cannot be a social media. Lemmy, Reddit, Kbin and other platforms like that has the main purpose share of knowledge and interaction between peers

For example, I may have a blog and this blog has a comment section in my posts. However, despite people can interact with each other in the comment section, the main purpose of my blog is post my own content. The interaction between people is secondary and consequence.

But in Lemmy the main purpose is interact. If not enough people participate, Lemmy dies. There is no other reason to use Lemmy other than interact with people.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

you could argue any site with a comment section is social media.

Which I would, tbh, although it's a limited form of SM, since sharing of top level content is very restricted to those with control of the site.

It's in the same class IMO as sites which are more open, like Lemmy/Reddit/FB/Twitter - they are perhaps more focused on SM as a primary function, while comment sections are a secondary aspect of, say, a news site. But the presence of shared discussion of whatever topic is at the top makes them SM for me.