They commented, on a social media platform...
I mean, honestly, if we're ever going to figure out what parts of these platforms are beneficial and which are harmful, we really need to start being more specific about what we're talking about.
And I hardly think you can call something as long-lived as social media of any form a 'fad'
Web forums are not social media, but I can see how they might be confused.
HN is more link aggregator / web forum than what the term social media has come to represent. I will grant you that the term 'social media' literally could cover any media that is social, but that's not historically how it has been applied.
Here there is no algorithmic bubble curated by engagement algorithm. Any attention is managed by the human brain, which is way healthier for the individual as they aren't being manuipulated into addictive engagement and groups as it tends less to form highly refined group think bubbles.
He's right, social media is the a big cause of the current unrest, not something that must be saved.
I would agree that communication platforms should probably not be open to spying or manipulation, but end-to-end encryption goes a long way there. The remaining problem is access being turned off, which can be solved by not relying on government controlled infrastructure (like electricity grid, networks, etc.).
So the person is right. The answer isn't a new site, it is more in person comms as redundancy.
How do you define social media? The use of algorithms to drive engagement? HN does use algorithms, though, such as upvotes/downvotes/flags influencing which stories/comments are seen more, and then there's the second chance pool. These algorithms may be more basic than those of, say, Facebook, but they are there. So what's the difference?
The ability to 'follow', having 'followers', thereby creating feeds and incentives.
Incentives for what, exactly? Have more followers, which by itself only makes one feel good through validation of others? Validation other platforms that don't have followers still manage to achieve?
I think the worst part about social media is the model for monetization and the incentives it creates
Certainly, but this can be said of quite literally any business endeavor - but I don't see people getting up in arms about other types of business in such an abstract sense - there aren't large groups of people calling for us to ban video games entirely [0], but we do advocate for, at the least, mitigating harmful practices such as loot boxes.
0 - Yes, some people do, but I think we can agree it's not nearly as popular a view as those pushing against 'social media'