Is Blogging Social Media?

I'm not looking to start a fight. I honestly wonder if blogging is what certain people have in mind when they talk about social media. Now I'm an expert in neither blogging nor social media, but recently I've come to realize both offer useful ways to connect with people. Armed with that realization, I've set out to learn to tweet, facebook, and flickr, but stumble (oh, I should learn to stumble, too) over whether blogging is part of social media.

Talking with a friend, who has far more experience and skill using social media than me, we readily agreed social media is about building relationships. So, does blogging build relationships? I have a few blogs I follow, checking them every couple of days. I even feel a certain familiarity with the authors of these blogs. But do I have a relationship with them? I'm not sure. One of the things my social media-savvy friend suggested about this apparent lack of relationship was that relationship building on blogs happens through comments. I have to admit the comment sections of some blogs make me socially envious. I wish my Facebook updates could muster as much response. But do the comments let bloggers build relationships? (Share your thoughts in the comments!)

NB. Not that a blog has to be social media to be an effective media, for sharing, marketing, ranting, or whatever. I hope to share some thoughts on publishing, editing, writing, and related miscellany here. Not so sure about ranting, but I'm sure it could happen.