Forums are not social media. How is this hard to understand. Forums have existed for decades longer than social media and if you include forums in the definition of social media then you literally by definition include every comment section on every blog, news site, and even things like the FCC request for comments from citizens.
It’s absolutely idiotic to include forums in that definition. You make the definition so wide as to be useless.
People have gotten confused and declared that any internet based activity that involves interaction is social media. Social media is centered on users (you follow other people, not topics, and people for whatever crazy reason use their real name), whereas there is absolutely no real reason to do that on a forum.
Social media is centered on users (you follow other people, not topics
This is the exact reason I never became interested in Mastodon. Following people just isn’t my style. The only social media I use is YouTube (without an account) because apparently Lemmy isn’t social media.
I find avoiding social media helps reduce encounters with the insane side of people who somehow appear to be relatively normal in real life.
For instance, I actually like my inlaws in real life, despite having some very different views than they do. On Facebook however, they’re complete fucking idiots that I wouldn’t give the time of day because they would just argue with me about it.
Same, but you were talking about NewPipe. I assume you use that on your phone.
And while you can disable the search history there, too, it often is convenient not to have to type the name of that thing you want to listen to while you’re driving, so many people leave it enabled.