[paulcole]

It’s not that complicated.

If you like it (HN for example), then it’s not social media.

I mean just look at what you just typed. You talk about a site you check daily for new content and interact with other people on. That’s social media — which in this case you just happen to like.

[JustHiThere]

You're correct in some sense. But the kind of "social media" we're actually talking about is the one that tries to hook you up and manipulate you. I mean, this is what I am talking about here.

In that sense, everything is social media. A blog post is social media, because the strict definition of social media is something like that :

"Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks"

Do we agree on some points or I am totally off?

[paulcole]

> Do we agree on some points or I am totally off?

Yes.

> In that sense, everything is social media

Correct.

> But the kind of "social media" we're actually talking about

There are social media that you think are good and social media that you think are bad. Both both are still social media.

[rhaway84773]

Social media’s addictive nature is driven by a personalized feed using every trick in the book to maximize the time you spend there.

Nothing about HN falls into that category. The UI is as unaddictive as it can get. The feed is not personalized. There are restrictions on how much you can post. You cannot follow anything. You cannot express interests (beyond the broad interest you’ve expressed by visiting HN in the first place). There is no endless scroll. Heck, even the pagination with very limited options is almost designed to ensure you don’t go beyond a couple of pages.

And it’s obviously not social media because there is no friend/follower/connection graph

[JustHiThere]

I think we're all correct in some sense. The thing is @paulcole is taking "social media" in the strict definition of the term, when most of the people here are talking specifically about a bunch of social media.

Which makes sense to me. Because ask someone on the street to provide the names of 3 social media platforms, they'll in 99% of the cases mention Facebook, Instagram etc ... And none of them knows that a blog post is social media ...

[paulcole]

You’ve just made up your own definition of ‘social media’ that conveniently excludes HN — much as I made up my own definition that includes HN.

[rhaway84773]

No. I’ve done 2 things.

1. I’ve described the factors that make social media especially addictive.

2. I’ve defined social media.

So your criticism, however accurate, applies only to the single sentence at the end of my comment.