Talking with people on the Phone is social media too then.

I agree it needs a definition and its no easy limes to draw, but id put it around algorithmic infinite feed recommender systems.

HN has no recommender system so I dont count it in. For me, its a forum. Plain, sometimes boring and often deep & rich.

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itishappy an hour ago | parent [-]

> HN has no recommender system so I dont count it in.

HN front page is digitally curated. HN has an opaque post ranking algorithm.

> How are stories ranked?

> The basic algorithm divides points by a power of the time since a story was submitted. Comments in threads are ranked the same way.

> Other factors affecting rank include user flags, anti-abuse software, software which demotes overheated discussions, account or site weighting, and moderator action.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html

Ever noticed the YC posts that cannot be commented on?

	▲	ryandrake 13 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		It's an interesting question: How do you define the line between a 'forum' (which most don't consider addictive or harmful), and 'social media' (where there is growing evidence of addiction and harm)? What are some attributes of social media that are missing on forums? Opaque ranking algorithms? Human curation / moderation? Automated curation / moderation? Voting / flagging? Infinite scroll? Images and/or auto-playing video? Advertising inline with posts? Profit motive to get users to do certain things? I don't know where you draw the line, and what makes Facebook harmful but Hacker News not harmful.