Research from Aston University has shown that the public has no clearly accepted definition for the term "social media" or agreement about which websites and platforms are classified as such.
Psychological research into social media tends to focus on its potential impact on mental health and well-being. Ph.D. researcher Evelyn Murray, Dr. Charlotte Pennington (primary supervisor), Dr. Daniel Shaw and Professor Michael Larkin from Aston University's Department of Psychology wanted to understand which platforms the public considers social media, its views on common negative and positive characteristics of social media, and how much people agreed with common definitions. They recruited nearly 1,000 participants who were active on social media to determine their views.
The findings are published in the journal Psychology of Popular Media.
"Social media" is broadly defined as an online platform for sharing digital media in a social capacity. Commonly accepted features of social media include social interaction, user-generated content, content sharing and exchange, and network and community building. Social media sites can include social networking sites, forums, blogs, social gaming, video sharing and virtual worlds. As technology advances, definitions fail to capture the full picture.
As academics and policymakers discuss potential harms and regulations, particularly for young people, an agreed-upon term becomes more important than ever. Confusion about which platforms constitute social media could lead to misunderstandings about what should be supervised or regulated. For example, if a blanket ban on social media for those under 16 included WhatsApp, classified by many as social media, this could affect communication between parents and children, many of whom use the platform.
Study participants preferred definitions that were easier to understand and more inclusive of platforms, rather than definitions that excluded platforms based on specific functions.
However, there was variation in which platforms the public considered "social media." The five social media platforms most commonly identified by participants across all ages were Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok and Snapchat. Other websites in the study were not as commonly identified as social media, even though they met many definitions.
Roblox is an online gaming and game-creation platform in which users create online avatars to access more than 40 million user-created games. Users can message and chat with other users, making its social aspect one of its most important features. However, it is not commonly viewed as a social media platform. Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, likewise has several commonly cited characteristics of social media, including user-generated content and public engagement, but again is not generally viewed as social media.
Murray also looked at how the public perceives social media. Public discourse in the media can be quite polarized, whereas many participants expressed more balanced views, recognizing that social media can be both beneficial and harmful depending on how it is used.
Study participants agreed on several positive characteristics of social media, including being accessible and easy to use, entertaining, updating people on local issues and news, and allowing people to form and maintain relationships. However, they also agreed that social media is addictive, time-consuming, spreads misinformation, disrupts sleep, increases social comparison and leads to cyberbullying.
Murray said, "I began by trying to determine, 'What is social media?' and when I tried, I found major discrepancies among definitions that included or excluded platforms based on subjective characteristics. I found it really frustrating that we use 'social media' as an all-encompassing term despite different functions and motivations for use.
"I hope this research encourages a more careful and precise use of the term 'social media' in both policy and academic work."
Pennington said, "The effects of social media on young people's mental health are central to current public debate and policy proposals, including bans for those under 16. However, our research shows that the term 'social media' itself is poorly understood. This matters because policies risk targeting an ill-defined concept, leading to overly broad or ineffective regulation that may not reflect real-world experiences of specific social media platforms and how they are used."
More information
doi.org/Evelyn A. H. Murray et al, Exploring public perceptions of social media: A preregistered mixed-methods study., Psychology of Popular Media (2026). DOI: 10.1037/ppm0000680
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Citation: What is 'social media'? Study highlights public confusion about the term (2026, July 10) retrieved 11 July 2026 from https://phys.org/news/2026-07-social-media-highlights-term.html
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