HN and other forums are also social media though, no? Whether it's online or a billboard on the town square it's still social media in a sense. Personally I agree with your sentiment, but in my mind I equate no social media with "the giants" like Facebook, Instagram, tiktok, Snapchat I guess.

I'm not sure exactly what makes them different from more focused forums, but it's something and – in my opinion – I don't think it's a net good for society.

Personally, I have no account with these services. I used to but I deleted all of them and it's made my life richer, not poorer.

> I'm not sure exactly what makes them different from more focused forums

Have you ever been on a smaller focused forum without mods or rules? I haven’t.

I most certainly have, but regardless I fail to see your point. Do you mean to suggest Facebook et al don't have rules or don't enforce those rules? That's just objectively false.

The platforms are designed for growth, forums aren’t. Rule enforcement isn’t their priority and it’s much harder to do it at their scale. Pretty simple really.