[randomsearch]

I find it strange that people consider HN to be social media. For me, social media is synonymous with manipulation engines designed to keep you engaged in order to sell advertising. HN isn’t selling advertising, it isn’t trying to addict you. Maybe ten years ago “social media” just meant “interacting with others online” but I think language has moved on.

I don’t like placing HN in the same bracket, because it devalues it. It would be like labelling your local vegan restaurant “junk food” and treating it like McDonalds. Lots of work has gone into actively making HN not like that, and it devalues that effort and the genuine efforts of posters to maintain civil discourse.

[ubercow13]

I dunno, HN can still be very addictive if you don’t have much else going on to distract you. It’s not manipulating you at a micro level in the same way as Facebook properties, but the rules certainly lead to an addictive kind of discourse that probably feels much more valuable than it really is. It’s information junk food, maybe more like the conventional news than social media. It’s not obvious to me that it provides me more value than Instagram.

[sarcasmOrTears]

Social media is also tied to your identity. Sites like HN let you be anonymous and in any case your name and face isn't plastered on every post.

[bryanrasmussen]

well this would be the second time in a week where I would be asking to use the original meaning of a technical term, but if you asked me "is HN social media" I guess I would have to say yes, with the proviso that is has far fewer feedbacks than most social media to keep you hooked and as such is perhaps a net good.