HN is an ad for YC. The Y logo featured on every page.

HN is as much social media as any other platforms: traffic driven by popularity, echo chamber, bias, or algorithm.

HN is not a link sharing site. The links aren’t organized by natural order such as the alphabet. You aren’t here for the links, but for the comments.

Sure, but you can't "befriend" or "follow" anyone. To me, at least, that is the first thing that makes me think of a site as SoMe.

That was the original definition of social media. Sharing media to consume.

Sites like FB were referred to as social networking. But then the terms got conflated.