Yeah, I think that’s pretty much it. Or Googling, then posting what are basically drive-by questions when - I assume - their Facebook/Instagram/Twitter friends can’t solve their problem-of-the-moment with a link to a Youtube video…
Obviously not “every” millenial or GenYer feels that way, and its not just that age-group that has fueled the explosion of social media usage, but I think it’s a pretty clear trend in “Web usage” in general. (I haven’t even logged into FB since my brother’s kids got old enough to not care if I looked at their posted photos or not:
, but I gather they’re pretty much the same as the “old” Yahoo groups, just on Facebook… And from comments I see on some other topical forums, some of them are relatively active, but it’s basically the same sort of “the same people saying more or less the same things about more or less the same stuff over and over again” that seems to be norm on most forums these days.
But it’s very definitely not just food forums. I’ve participated on quite a few “topical” forums over the years - from food and computer-related tech (first and foremost) to knitting/crochet/fiber arts, home repair/improvement, (“foreign”) language-related, and “bargains/sales” sites and its pretty much the same story on all of them. The “topical” areas see relatively minimal activity - mostly of the sort I mentioned above - and the rest of - sometimes surprisingly large amounts of “chat” comes from diehard, longtime posters who just hang around schmoozing… (Though interestingly enough, they do attract a small, but steady stream of “new” schmoozers, who often barely mention the subject matter of the parent forum at all. Which is always a little weird, but…) In short, it seems that pretty much all web forums are becoming “social” sites with a general leaning to a shared interest in particular subject.