this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2025
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this is a forum. it's not social media. if this is social media then every website on the internet is, meaning any law passed on social media is without exception a law passed on the entirety of the internet.
Just to give you a semblance of how ridiculous of a definition that is (in the current day and age where we’re stating the effects of social media on people’s lives); imagine that you walked up to someone and asked them what their address was, and they answered “Earth”. It’s such a wide ranging answer that conveys absolutely nothing. And now imagine that laws started to be passed stating that “anyone that uses earth must submit to blah blah blah”. People would be up in arms.
Social media is not forums. It is not blogs. It is not comment sections. It is not video streaming sites.
The internet was made up of those things long before social media came around. Stop calling the entire internet social media.
I think you may need to go outside and touch some grass...
I don’t care what the dictionary says, it’s a pointless definition if that’s the definition. That’s literally every website on the planet. It even includes websites like General Motors blog (that definition you posted comes from a 2010 article written by a business moron who lumped in Wikipedia and General Motors’ blog, in the actually published paper), so yes it’s an incredibly dumb definition. Social media does not mean anywhere you share information and connect through text. THAT’S THE INTERNET!
If reddit considers itself a social media website ....... How is that different from Lemmy?
Also who gives a fuck? Maybe take a second to ask yourself why you've written paragraphs on a social media site declaring what is and isnt a social media website?
Because definitions lead to laws. Those laws affect the interactions you have on the internet. The current interaction you are having would be bound by laws in the UK, Nepal, the United States and more if forums were classified as social media. Not only that, but with the definitions posted elsewhere in this thread it would literally regulate Amazon under social media as well. Do you think that things that aren’t social media should be regulated as them just by an arbitrary naming convention?
Using social media to mean “the Internet” just means you lose your rights without noticing.
Most laws define their words, and they're going to define them however they want, and they will include forums as social media. Laws are written to have an effect, usually to regulate communication between people. That's what social media facilitates
Forums are absolutely social media. What do you think the word forum even means? The whole point is a gathering place for people to interact, socially.
That’s the entire internet. Social media has no meaning if it just means “humans interacting”. That’s the whole fucking purpose of the Internet! We already have a word for it. It’s the Internet! Social media is not forums, it’s not YouTube, it’s not video streaming sites.
All right so what is social media by your extremely narrow definition? Because according to your logic I don't know what fits. I can't think of a single website that would fit the definition of social media according to you.
I mean if social media doesn't have anything to do with the word social or media then what does it have to do with?
Social media is a derivative of social networking, a term that came about to describe the extremely specific niche that Facebook and MySpace filled, along with numerous copycats. Facebook evolved from social networking into social media. The words in the name have essentially nothing to do with what the words originally described, mostly due to the fact that words for computer systems very often mean something completely different when discussed outside of computer systems.
Essentially you need these things:
An example of modern day social networking is LinkedIn. The majority of users aren’t posting things, when they are posting it’s always text, everyone has a real identity, and if you aren’t posting things, when you’re using the platform you are likely searching for a job by messaging others or commenting on posts.
An example of modern day social media is Snapchat. You have a group of friends you follow, you post photos and videos (media), only your friends see it, you are all going by your real name.
Social media never meant shouting to the world. That’s just how the internet works. You’re already shouting to the world. That’s why we didn’t bother describing it until people started forming these incredibly close private networks. We didn’t need names for BBS or Usenet because that’s just how the Internet works.
You would never say that watching the president talk on TV was social, even if they’re talking to 1 billion people. Even if you go and comment on the video on the government’s website, it’s not social. It’s all commentary aimed at one thing. In that same vein you can’t call YouTube social media, nor Wikipedia, nor blogs, etc. They’re all individuals shouting into a void, not humans corresponding at the same level.
These were the original definitions, until news companies started using the terms to define any website they didn’t understand. Now news companies and governments use it as a boogeyman to attack anything they don’t like to try to regulate it all under the guise of (whatever meets the current power meta).
Let’s stick to the original definitions, because expanding it any further just muddies communication and makes words meaningless. Social means real names, you know the people, and you’re not shouting into the void. Media means non-text (we’re in computer land, not physics land or news land). If it meant more than that then we would have been calling everything social media back then, and we definitely weren’t. It wasn’t until websites started making the news that the news co-opted the term and we’re in the hell hole we’re in today.
Show us a dictionary or otherwise common usage of it meaning that. Because it absolutely has nothing to do with anonymity or names.
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/social_media
They won't like this....
It's a FORM OF MEDIA where you come TO BE SOCIAL. 🤦♂️
Every website on the internet does not have the social aspect. Amazon isn't social media. Zombo.com isn't social media. Spotify isn't social media. Your bank's website isn't social media.
Forums are social media. Chatrooms are social media. Video games can even be a social media.
Those things you commented about literally are defined as social media by the exact definition that y’all are all saying is accurate. Spotify was considered social media by Nepal in the most recent craziness.
Amazon literally has a follower aspect and comment sections on every page.
You are arguing the same thing I am except not realizing that forums aren’t social media. Forums are text based forums. Users aren’t sharing their lives. They don’t go by real names. They aren’t posting videos of their dogs. Forums aren’t social media and neither are the things you posted. But the dictionary definition literally lumps them all in together. It’s idiotic. It includes every website on the planet.
Do you not know what a forum is outside of the internet version? Do you not understand the definition of "social?"
Amazon does not have followers. 🤨 It doesn't even have comments. It has a review section. It is not a place people have conversations or discussions. Using your real name doesn't matter. Talking about your daily life doesn't matter. A forum is a place where you gather to discuss topics in an open, public space.
Oh yes it does.
Sorry they call them "Answers" but it sure does look like a traditional forum to me. Let's see. We've got upvotes and downvotes, people can ask questions, and people can respond to those questions.
well it also has a review section, but it has a comment, ah sorry, Q&A section as well. People are talking there, they are voting on things. It's just as much a social media site as lemmy is. It even has profile pages!
uhh. yeah. you're agreeing with me. Forums aren't social media. Commenting on things existed before social media ever did. But under these definitions that people are using, literally Amazon is social media. That makes zero fucking sense. When you define social media in such a broad sense it becomes a completely useless word except for governments to remove your freedoms. Laws regulating "social media" that go by the current (wrong) dictionary definitions will regulate every single site you use. It's idiotic!
Look at the definition that @TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee posted:
That literally defines amazon. People post pictures and text to share information (reviews, Q&A) and to connect with other owners or potential buyers of the product. Some of the users are owners of shops, they are posting information and links to their other sites and store pages. Users can even link out to their TikTok (look at the first screenshot above if you don't believe me).
If your government is using this idiotic definition then your rights are being removed from every website you touch. This isn't some "oh social media is only these sites I think it is, it's not amazon, it's not wikipedia, it's not blogs". If your government is using that definition (which is one of many that are illogical, idiotic, and cover everything under the sun) then all of those sites count as social media.
A word that is so broad as to indicate humans communicating becomes completely useless in the context of government regulation, news sites, etc. Forums aren't social media.
Let me put this in simpler terms. Forums have existed for thousands of years. Let's go back to Roman times. They're speaking in forums, talking to each other, etc. Then one dude decides to start his own forum where he's gonna bring CSAM or worse to the forum and start sharing it with others, they even might start doing plays. The Roman government cracks down and says that everyone who is engaging in any sort of communication needs to start registering with the government in order to even talk to each other. That even includes letters and books, public government meetings, plays, etc. Even though they're all completely different scenarios. The only similarity here is that people are communicating.
That's the situation we're in right now. The government decided to use the word forum (social media) to be a boogeyman to regulate talking (forums) and disguised it as regulating bad guys, even though the law literally applies to all forms of communication. They hijacked the word forum (social media) and expanded it to mean everything: plays, books, letters, stores, meetings (streaming sites, encyclopedias, blogs).
Take the word back. Stop using forum (social media) to mean the world. It has a specific meaning. Use it appropriately.