Do you think social media will ever take over forums?

[Shortie]

It has long been a topic of discussion as to whether or not social media may one day take over forums. With social media having just about everything in one place, many people would rather just stick to social media than be part of forums and that has often lead to people wondering if forums will eventually die out to social media.
I personally myself feel that with forums, there is so much more to offer that social media doesn't offer such as an extensive way to share you opinions and stories with others who you may not have met otherwise, especially not through social media. On social media you can limit who can be friends with you and who can see your posts but with forums, that is a very different story. I wouldn't know half the people I know now if it wasn't for forums that I have been a part of throughout the years and I feel that social media will never be able to completely take over forums purely for that reason.

What are your thoughts? Do you feel social media will one day take over forums? Why or why not?

 

[oldbuddy]

Not for me, I much prefer Forums that focus on a particular content than Social Networks where the members focus on how many friends they can collect and those friends are people they don't really know at all.

 

[Chimex]

Forums are places where you can talk with like minded people on things that matter to you. I prefer forums.

 

[Cory]

Even if forums have minuscule activity there are those that will remain faithful to them to keep them around. I think forums may adapt and evolve to keep up with the 'times' and the ever-so-growing popularity of social media.

 

[Shortie]

I can see where you are all coming from and I will admit, since I have been posting on forums again a little more myself, I have realized how much just using social media I was unable to share my opinions on things because of how people are on social media. With forums you will always find that you can share your opinions with like-minded people, and you will end up with a very adult discussion rather than having people coming in and giving you grief for sharing your opinion. There are also many things that cannot really be discussed on social media and that is where forums do come into play. Forums have evolved so much already through the years, and I feel that will only get better over time, only time will tell just how things will evolve.

 

[Akinwale]

That would be a hard one. Social media is more fun than forums. People want to laugh which why social media is becoming an addiction to many. Forums can't provide that.

 

[Cedric]

Forums is more serious business, I won't deny that. And I prefer forums above social media for conversing. However I probably spend a little more time on social media than I do on forums. But I'm more a lurker than active user on social media. Where I'm the opposite on forums. Forums will never be replaced by social media, but it's no secret that it made a huge decline after social media became more popular.

I believe that more serious people visit forums where there's more immaturity on social media. Forums will always be preferred by some people and that is why we need to encourage any new community coming online.

 

[Haywhy]

Well it's possible with the way things are turning out. There is a high chance for the masses to earn on forums than social media, this will make many shift to forums

 

[Kyng]

No, I think any damage they would have done was already done back in the early 2010s.

If anything does kill forums altogether, it'll probably be if/when smartphones completely take over from PCs. It's possible to use a forum on a smartphone, but it's not particularly fun or convenient to do so. And I don't think it's really possible to run a forum from a smartphone - especially if you're self-hosting.

Fortunately, I don't see that happening any time soon either.

 

[tyrim88]

Forum to me have lots of advantage,you learn and there are sections that you can go to that would be of interest to you, your friends are not limited to those you only know.

 

[Xilia]

No. Unles Facebook or Reddit (of which I seriously doubt) gets super better on their organizational skills, no, forums will always exist. People like me crave that specific organization where it's much easier to look for specific topics.

 

[Cory]

Unles Facebook or Reddit (of which I seriously doubt) gets super better on their organizational skills

Not to mention, those sites are too active where everything gets buried.

 

[Cedric]

Not to mention, those sites are too active where everything gets buried.

Not to mention, they are filled with trolls.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

For some people, it already has, years ago.

But even social media gets replaced. TikTok doesn't want itself seen as social media for example, it wants to be something better. If that is the case, then it is killing social media.

But I still see forums like Mom and Pop diners. And social like Walmart. I'd rather go to Mom and Pop to get that unique experience because everyone is getting the same thing with social.

I do use social though. I have a non-forum brand that I heavily promote on social.

I have a social group on Facebook. I have over 25,000 members on it. Real people, too. It's super active. But I did very little to promote it. By the time Facebook got me on the news to promote it, I already had 20,000+ members.

A forum would take years to get that many members and that is if you could actually get that many members.

Social makes it easy but we own our forums, at least the database.

Before we strike a line through forums though, we need to take a breath and look at the current situation. Social media and TikTok are committing social suicide. They repeatedly violate privacy rules. They are close to being banned from governments. They are too big for their britches.

Forums might make a comeback just like everything retro does.

 

[Cedric]

For some people, it already has, years ago.

But even social media gets replaced. TikTok doesn't want itself seen as social media for example, it wants to be something better. If that is the case, then it is killing social media.

But I still see forums like Mom and Pop diners. And social like Walmart. I'd rather go to Mom and Pop to get that unique experience because everyone is getting the same thing with social.

I do use social though. I have a non-forum brand that I heavily promote on social.

I have a social group on Facebook. I have over 25,000 members on it. Real people, too. It's super active. But I did very little to promote it. By the time Facebook got me on the news to promote it, I already had 20,000+ members.

A forum would take years to get that many members and that is if you could actually get that many members.

Social makes it easy but we own our forums, at least the database.

Before we strike a line through forums though, we need to take a breath and look at the current situation. Social media and TikTok are committing social suicide. They repeatedly violate privacy rules. They are close to being banned from governments. They are too big for their britches.

Forums might make a comeback just like everything retro does.

I do hope they made a comeback, it's much more fun than social media. We can only encourage everyone to start making forums.

 

[Cory]

Not to mention, they are filled with trolls.

The larger a site is, the more likely you are to find people like that.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I do hope they made a comeback, it's much more fun than social media. We can only encourage everyone to start making forums.

Personally, I do to.

I hate when social media releases a feature that I fall in love with and then removes it for no reason.

I can control that better on my own forum.

Social is rented space in the end. You can lose it all for nothing.

With our forums, we retain the database.

 

[Heatman]

Between forums and social media which one is winning the battle? It's very obvious that the latter - social media is winning. It's kicked back on forums really hard.

But have forums given up the fight completely? The answer is a big NO! There's still a lot of forum lovers out there doing everything to propagate forum's existence.