You’re an idiot, but don’t worry, you’re in good company and other idiots wil always be there to tell you how thoughtful your bullshit is.

I’m going to block you now to very slightly reduce the amount of stupid people in my feed.

I’ve had to ask myself why I’m engaging with you, why this is an argument I’m choosing to participate in. Is the inane purpose of trying to get people to correctly classify platforms as social media my hill to die on?

Of course not. You can also call a horse a pig and it won’t affect my life.

My part in this ridiculous conversation is due to watching millions and billions of people with infinitely more access to information than ever before in human history choosing to believe that their ignorance or opinion is worth just as much as fact to the contrary.

“Here’s the definition of the term you disagree with.”

“Nuh uh, it’s this other thing I made up and you should respect my opinion.”

No, I shouldn’t. Your opinion is ignorant to stated facts and has no worth. One of the diseases that social media (like this site!) has been an amazing vector for is giving anyone a platform (the definition of social media) to express their ignorance, contend that it’s rude and attacking to point out that flagrant ignorance, and probably end up convincing other people that their ignorance sounds kinda cool.

You could have searched “what is social media,” “definition of social media,” “what makes social media social media,” etc. and seen a hundred results that’s converge on an actual definition for the term that Reddit and Lemmy encompass perfectly.

Instead, you redefine a term because it’s how you feel and then use the comments section on social media to broadcast your ignorance.

My contention is this: a website having media and a comment section doesn’t automatically qualify it as social media. Whether it operates as a public or private forum is irrelevant.

You’re making an argument against something that no one else is saying. I replied to this in my last comment. ESPN is not social media because you or I don’t dictate the content there. But here, in this social media environment, I can make any post about anything and interact with all the posts and comments made by anyone else who chooses to use the platform. That’s the definition of social media. We - the social part - post the media. The Reddit company doesn’t make all the posts and then you get to comment on them. Anybody can and does post the media with which everyone interacts. This isn’t a difficult concept. I made this point in my last comment and you conveniently ignored it as it’s the crux of what makes your argument meaningless.

I mean, you straight up said the stupid part out loud:

More importantly, I am making a personal statement: I do not consider Lemmy or Reddit to be social media. I understand they are categorized as such, but I am stating my disagreement with that classification.

“I know that things exist in fact but I redefined them to the benefit of no one except for me feeling special about myself and that’s my right!”

And it is your right to be wrong and proud. And it’s any rational person’s right to see the ignorance in your belief and wonder at the psychological mechanisms that have led to a society where people believe their opinions counter to matters of fact are valid.

I don’t care what you call Lemmy. Shout from the hilltops that this isn’t social media, make up your own special word for it, tell everyone that dogs aren’t actually mammals, that the color green doesn’t exist, and that tax cuts for the 1% will surely trickle down to the rest of us. Having an opinion based on your own definitions or feelings that’s counter to fact makes you irrational at best and allows any rational person to dismiss your opinions on things that actually do matter as you’ve proudly proven that facts aren’t a factor in your decision-making.

I’m not writing this for you. You’re dug into your ignorance and my pointing out it has probably caused you to dig in twice as deep. That’s what people tend to do. I wrote all this precisely because it’s such a stupid, trivial matter that encapsulates a big reason our society has gotten so fucked. Because people have a platform (social media) to express their tiniest thoughts, they have arrived at the conclusion that their opinions on all matters are relevant.

You redefined a term and are arguing that it’s valid and should be accepted… Other people whose last biology lesson was in grade school have impassioned arguments on how they feel vaccines work because they redefined what a vaccine is and does and in their personal definition it’s very dangerous. And we’ve all seen a video of some flat-earther performing Olympic gold mental gymnastics to justify their ignorant opinion.

You’re doing the same thing despite the subject matter being so much more insignificant. I think that’s why I zeroed in on it. This is such a stupid thing to have a stupid opinion about and yet you’re as impassioned as the next person telling cancer patients to quit their therapy and start smelling essential oils.

And the chance of you saying, “I see what you’re saying, I see that I made a definition up for a well-established term, and I’ve changed my mind,” is about as good as arguing with any of the examples above.

This isn’t for you. This was for me and for all the no one else who will ever read this.

By your definition, nearly anything could qualify as social media as long as it involves media and some capacity for correspondence. This broad and vague categorization dilutes the meaning of the term, making it less useful as a precise descriptor.

This is incorrect and the point you’re failing to grasp. What makes this social media is that we the users supply the media. A regular person made the post to which we’re replying in the comments. This whole thing exists because every post is socially sourced.

A website with a comments section isn’t social media because only the website owner gets to decide what’s posted.

This IS social media because a rando posted this, and without a huge social network of randos making posts, Lemmy or Reddit (or Facebook or Tiktok) fail to exist as there would be no media.

Your arbitrary suggestion that being anonymous is a key factor in determining whether it’s social media or not is nonsensical and incorrect.

This is what Wiktionary says:

noun Interactive forms of media that allow users to interact with and publish to each other, generally by means of the Internet.

You can have a made up definition of what “social media” is and use it to support any argument that you’d like, but you can’t make any sort of compelling case for Reddit or Lemmy not perfectly fitting the generally accepted definition.

My guess is that by defining “social media” to be Facebook and Instagram, telling yourself and others, “I don’t use social media,” allows you to feel some unearned superiority or integrity.

You’re communicating to me right now in the comments of a media post, shared to a social network. Stop making up definitions of terms and expecting anyone else to accept them.

Your ratio says otherwise

drives a truck everywhere

“I don’t use cars like everyone else. This is a different means of conveyance altogether.”

People often quote RATM’s, “Some of those who work forces are the same who burn crosses.” That’s informative.

I, and I imagine Luigi, prefer some of their other, inspirational quotes like:

“Can’t waste a day when the night brings a hearse, so make a move and plead the fifth cuz ya can’t plead the first.”

or

“Return the power to the have-nots, and take a shot.”

Are the pens and paper drawn or is this a picture of a notebook drawing?

Xanth was very special to me when I was young.

Supernintendo Chalmers

When Rudy’s dad tears up seeing his son on the field

deleted by creator

Seeing the raw numbers is impactful and I would also like to see these figures as percentages of the whole since they’re comparing different times with different populations.

You must be miserable.

You’re causing me to question their tech nerd wizard credentials

I loved the animated series too as well as the games and lore.

A lot of the old shit was just left in a field to rot. Someone came along and said see all this shit over here anyone want it? No one did.

We’re going to need some legitimate citations to back your claim about “a lot of the old shit” being left in fields that people passed by and didn’t take for themselves.

In October, he was one of nine senators to vote against legislation intended to outlaw flag burning and other forms of flag defacement and joined Bob Dole and Orrin Hatch, the other two Republicans to vote against the bill,

That’s awesome. At least he stood for free speech…

in voicing a preference for a constitutional amendment.

…Jesus Christ

People, myself included, aren’t fond of lemmy.ml because it pretends to be a privacy-centric instance but it’s actually run by people who defend any and every criticism of Russia and China under the guise of critiquing capitalism.

They commonly say that any bad news about China or Russia is western propaganda while everything from their state-run “news” platforms is gospel.

They’re unable to say that two things are true at once, like capitalism is a pure shit system AND China and Russia are fucked for a million reasons specific to them.

People get banned from their server for saying that China is anything but a utopian dream.

And then, yes, people unfairly assume that you must be cool with all that because you’re using their instance. If you’re not married to the idea of staying there, I’d suggest deleting your account and using a different instance.

No, it’s full proof! Scientific papers are always saying how the type and cause of everyone’s depression is exactly the same. That’s why any primary care specialist, psychiatrist, psychologist, or counselor will tell you to save your time and money on medication, therapy, diet, exercise, relationships, and self love, and to focus exclusively on eating liver. Still feel low? You’re not eating enough liver!