@alienghic@octodon.social i would argue that one core aspect of what most people think of as “social media” is commodification of social interaction / behaviours as something to be consumed, or a mode of consumption, rather than something to participate in. i think this is what separates social media from blogs (where the thing being consumed / method of consumption is not as social in nature) and forums/mailing lists/chat rooms (which are designed as participatory systems, although the presence of “lurkers” muddles this definition somewhat).

i do think this is inherently problematic to some extent? i don’t think Mastodon, for example, has freed itself from the problems of conflating social participatory culture with content consumption simply because it doesn’t show ads.

however, i think the problem becomes much worse when that consumption becomes linked into a capitalistic framework.