Ask Lemmy

Is there standards body that promulgates them?

https://xkcd.com/927/

Social media emerged as a term to describe Facebook and MySpace, places where you added connections between friends and shared moments of your life with them, not a comment section on a website. Using the term “social media” to describe something that existed before those sites existed devalues the actual worth of forums as a meeting place. There is clearly a difference between something like Twitter and Facebook who’s only purpose is to show you ads and things to get you angry using algorithms and places like Lemmy and really any sort of comment section (Reddit and 4chan included) that are simply people talking to each other.

I would expect most people here would be able to understand the difference and how referring to things that are distinctly not Facebook or Twitter as being in the same category. Reddit, Lemmy, your random double edge razor forum, etc are not social media. They’re forums. They’ve existed for thousands of years.

forum
noun
fo·​rum ˈfȯr-əm 
plural forums also fora ˈfȯr-ə 
Synonyms of forum
1
a
: the marketplace or public place of an ancient Roman city forming the center of judicial and public business
b
: a public meeting place for open discussion
The club provides a forum for people interested in local history.
c
: a medium (such as a newspaper or online service) of open discussion or expression of ideas
2
: a judicial body or assembly : COURT
3
a
: a public meeting or lecture involving audience discussion
The town has scheduled a public forum to discuss the proposal.
b
: a program (as on radio or television) involving discussion of a problem usually by several authorities

4chan is social media.

Social media has nothing to do with being social. People were social on websites long before “social media” existed. Calling forums “social media” is just conflating forums (which have no requirement of having any sort of algorithmic popularity or ranking) with those that do, like Facebook.

Your description of Reddit is literally a description of a forum. For the past 40 years it’s been that way.