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.
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.