Social networks like reddit and Facebook are a new phenomena in the internet. They are marketed as start page to the internet and the hope is, that they are providing an environment for advertisement and user profiling. Social networks are operating with a certain linguistic pattern which should be analyzed next. In short, the pattern works by focus not on a topic but to talk to people. Here is an example.
A newbie user of a social network has posted into a group a question about a random topic. For example he likes to know which Linux distribution works fine. A possible original post can be written the following way.
Hallo social network Linux group,
I'd iike to know if Ubuntu or Arch Linux is the better operating system. I'm asking because both systems have advantages and this makes it hard to select one of them. Thank you for reading my post.
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So far, the initial posting is nothing special. A user has concrete problem (decision for a Linux distribution) and he posts the problem online so that a larger audience can read it. In a normal discussion forum which is not a social network, but a classical website a possible answer would read the following:
Dear Newbie,
thanks for joining our Linux group. I prefer the Arch Linux distribution because updates are delivered more frequently, so you have always the latest software version. By and have fun on the PC.
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A possible alternative answer would be the following:
Arch Linux is very complicated to use on a production system. The user has to install software all the time. In contrast, Ubuntu works robust and is recommneded for desktop systems.
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From a content perspective both answer are different. They are recommending opposite Linux distribution. But from a language perspective they have much in common. Both are answering a question in an online forum and it is likely that they can be read in the real world.
Now let us compare the situation with a social network. Suppose the same OP is posted to such a networking side, the typical answer would read the following:
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In general, we are not discussing Linux distributions in such a way. Perhaps, you can answer the question by yourself.
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Another typical social network answer would read the following:
Why are you asking? Are you familiar with Ubuntu already?
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So let us try to describe both answer from a linugistic perspective. What they have in common is, that the topic was ignored, instead the person who is asking the Original post is under investigation. What the inital users was trying to achive was to discuss the pros and cons of Linux distribution. And what the social network is trying to do is to talk with the person who has asked the question.
It depends, if this linguistic pattern makes sense or not. What can described is, that social networks are producing such a pattern, while classical online forums are staying on the topic. So what potential users can do is to anticipate such a language pattern.