Which Platforms Count? The Diverse Meanings of "Social Media" in the United States

The effects of using social media platforms remain hotly debated, but insufficient research hasfocused on how individuals are defining what social media is. Here, we consider how differentunderstandings of the term “social media” may influence how people think and talk about socialmedia experiences and effects. To test this, we asked a nationally representative sample of adultsin the United States (N = 1904) to indicate whether twelve popular platforms are “social media.”Our results revealed significant variation in the identification of “social media”— with generalagreement that six platforms are social media (Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, Snapchat,and TikTok) and a lack of consensus about the other six (Telegram, Signal, Discord, WhatsApp,and Messenger, and YouTube). Younger participants were more likely to view four platforms associal media (Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and TikTok), whereas older participants were morelikely to view six platforms as social media (Reddit, YouTube, Telegram, Signal, WhatsApp, andMessenger). Additionally, we examined the correlates of holding broad vs. narrow social mediaschemata, finding that individuals with broader schemas perceived hate speech to be moreprevalent on social media. Looking forward, we discuss how the lack of consensus around theterm “social media” may affect how people respond to survey questions about social media, aswell as perceive and converse about their effects and policy implications in society.