RW
” And no YWN is not social media its a forum and those have been around many years and are not as problematic as social media.”
By any defintion, YWN (At least the coffee room) is social media
Websters:
” forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content ”
Oxford:
“websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.”
YWN Coffee room falls squarely into those definitions. you say it is “older” than other forms, I suppose thats true, not sure why that changes things .
you says it is ” not as problematic as social media.” I agree, but this sprt of answers your question.
Why use something simply because it is “not as problematic”? Obviously you find some good here. In spite of it being a bit of a time waster, often full of silly ideas, inane arguments often by people who don’t understand the topics they are talking about (I once had a long drawn out discussion with someone on whether a study was valid, with someone who didn’t understand the basic idea behind studies)
I spite of those negatives WE find something of value here, whatever that may be
Same for other forms of social media, sure there are downsides, but people find that the good outweighs the bad. yo umention “just an excuse to use the platform since everyone else is using it.” YES! that is a big chunk of it. PEople dont want to feel left out. They find value in that