I just had to quit Reddit this weekend. Deleted the app off my phone, edited my hosts file on my computer to send it to 127.0.0.1 along with a whole bunch of mass media sites. I noticed this year that I was scrolling and scrolling and scrolling hours away on reddit and then it hit me, this is a tiny minority of the world having an outsized influence on my thoughts and opinions both in a positive and negative manner but more often than not negative and getting worse over time. The most outraged, the biggest whiners would get the most upvotes so all you see is outrage and rants and I thought to myself, is that really how the general public is? Is this really my experience of it?...then I thought no it's not, it's an algorithm that's feeding off my fear to instil more fear in me in a never ending loop. Delete...

I don't see sites that just have user discussions as social media. To me they're essentially usenet but on a web site.

I'd say to qualify as social media you need to make the experience about connecting people with each other or with groups, and finding people to connect with. Things like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Twitter are all definitely social media.

A site that just posts news headlines that people comment on is not really social media IMHO.

It is. It's just different forms of them. HN comment section can be considered a social media, Reddit definitely is a social network. If you are broad with the term, anything with a community can be considered social media. What I quit are the "passive" social media that market themselves as such, with the social part being their primary function and attraction.

not sure why you are downvoted. These platforms are social media. I font feel criticizing or mentioning reddit breaks the HN rules.