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Comment by SimplyUnknown | Hacker News Reader

Funny that your link includes WhatsApp as a social medium. I don't see it like that at all. For me it is just a free alternative to SMS. Besides, they say it is big in Latin Amercia but in my country, Holland, I would guess that by now it is present on >95% of all smartphones. (latest source I could find was from 2016, which states that 92% of all smartphones in the Netherlands have WhatsApp installed, https://tweakers.net/nieuws/109689/whatsapp-staat-op-11-komm...).

I would consider reddit, missing in the article, more of a social network than WhatsApp.

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WhatsApp's group chat feature sees the same issues as any other social media platform; spread of disinformation, digital witch hunts, bullying, etc. How is it not a social medium?

> spread of disinformation, digital witch hunts, bullying, etc

That are just features of every communication platform, even the traditional postal services.

AFAIK, most people consider social media platforms to be a subset of communication platforms with many to many communication, discovery, community etc..

I'm with you though that the groups feature of WhatsApp could be seen as some basic form of social media. (For the sake of theoretic precision; certainly not for introducing censorship.)

My bike has the same problems as my convertible car: It gets flat tires, I get wet when it rains and it costs more energy to go uphill. Is my bike now a convertible car?

The definition of a social network is not in its problems but in its features.

And I'd say one of the defining features of a social network is discovery (e.g. new people, groups that share a common interest, etc.). This is completely lacking in WhatsApp - as you already need to be able to "have access" to the people you want to talk with before you can contact them - but is the integral experience with facebook or instagram.

Is having group conversations in person a social medium too?

> Funny that your link includes WhatsApp as a social medium. I don't see it like that at all. For me it is just a free alternative to SMS.

You can post status updates (images, message, videos, ...) with WhatsApp: https://faq.whatsapp.com/en/android/26000031/

But what percent of people actually use these features? I would assume it's in the low single digits.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/3/15537000/whatsapp-stories-... More than snapchat, in 2017.

In China, WeChat is the social medium (and everything else).

I agree, but where to draw the line? I don't use Facebook, but I use Messenger Lite. Am I a user of social media?

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