Yeah but that doesn’t mean I think it’s a “community” that I am “joining”.
Certainly by some definition of the word you can call these things communities just because that’s how language works. Using “community” in this way is so pervasive I laughingly recall a tech bro watch company calling the people that buy their watches a “community”.
But from the meaning of the word before the rise of social media, social media platforms and the loosely structured groups underneath that you “form” by “joining” (AKA sometimes just looking at a video or web page or something) them definitely don’t resemble nor replace a community.
EDIT:
TL;DR: Being subscribed to “Lemmy Shitpost” (or just not blocking it, as is my case) isn’t exactly like joining the local chapter of the Loyal Order of Moose.