Which Social Media Platforms Do You Use?

[Ryujin]

Why is Whatsapp on the list? It's app for voice calls and messaging. People use it as a substitute for regular calls and SMS. Same with Signal. Sure, you can add status, and they introduced channels, but no matter how much Meta tries to push that crap, people don't really care for those features.

Both Signal and WhatsApp can be used for group messaging and if people don't like either, then that will be reflected in the responses.

 

[GrimCo]

Both Signal and WhatsApp can be used for group messaging and if people don't like either, then that will be reflected in the responses.

Sure, but you can have group messaging via MMS. If that's criteria, than basic message app in your phone is social media. Both SIgnal and Wapp require you, as group chat admin, to have someones phone number in your contacts if you want to add them into chat.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

And you are considered to "use a platform" if you have created an account for it, and that account is still active (meaning that you can log back in if you wanted.)

I feel like this is an un-usefully overbroad definition of "use a platform", I think you should have to have at least actively used it in say, the last six months. Like, I have a Facebook account, have I posted on Facebook in the last five years? No. Have even looked at Facebook in the last six months? No.

This definition is kind of more "Are you the kind of person who goes around deleting accounts you're not using" than "do you actively use a platform".

Like, I have accounts on most things. I almost never delete accounts - who the hell does? That's a weird kind of specific behaviour that like, maybe 5-10% of people engage in. That's not a criticism of those people, but that's like, not "how people act" in general. It's the exception not the norm.

If we narrowed it even further to more than just reading posts, and pressing like, then it'd basically just be message boards, WhatsApp, Discord and Reddit for me. Like Twitch, I don't watch Twitch unless someone I know has specifically pointed me to a specific stream, have never booted it up without a specific goal, but I have a Twitch account.

Also is WhatsApp really "social media"? I guess it could be if you went around joining groups of mostly-strangers, and I guess some people do (and I get to hear horrible stories about such groups lol), but I literally only use to talk to friends and relatives (and occasionally co-workers, but usually only when they cross over into the friend zone).

 

[Belen]

I'm still a member of an active listserv.

I can't help but feel like people claiming ENWorld and other forums aren't social media is a bit like the folks who want to claim they never watch TV but also swear DVDs/streaming/whatever doesn't count.

Or the folks who live for their social media addiction on platforms like TikTok, X, Bluesky, etc, need to lump in forums as social media to make the toxic stuff more palatable.

Not that forums cannot grow toxic but I find social media platforms scary like when people on FB are start using the exact same talking points.

 

[Scribe]

I acknowledge you think so. Now you'll have to acknowledge I think they have considerable overlap in how they work in practice. I've seen discussions in all three that were not meaningfully different than they'd have been in one of the others.

Sure, I'm not saying they are impossible to use. I used Discord for awhile, I dont know how it is now but I dont consider it 'social media' either, any more than irc back in the day (is that still in use?).

I also admit, that there is potential to find information in reddit, that is not available elsewhere, but the tech itself, how it functions in terms of potentially silencing conflicting or unpopular opinions, I take issue with.

Its not the worst thing, that would be peak Twitter, but its up there.

 

[Ryujin]

Sure, I'm not saying they are impossible to use. I used Discord for awhile, I dont know how it is now but I dont consider it 'social media' either, any more than irc back in the day (is that still in use?).

I also admit, that there is potential to find information in reddit, that is not available elsewhere, but the tech itself, how it functions in terms of potentially silencing conflicting or unpopular opinions, I take issue with.

Its not the worst thing, that would be peak Twitter, but its up there.

Discord is pretty much what you make of it, I find. I'm on a few fan Discords, but also have a couple that are essentially like a private Facebook for just friends. The same was true of Slack, a few years back.