>Do we even need social networks anymore?

Shockingly, it turns out the world includes people whose habits and preferences differ from yours.

Ironic words from a HN user with over 10k karma.

This isn't a social network. Do you see me posting picture of my bathroom/kids/furniture/food?

Forums are typically considered social networks, although I suppose the definition is debatable. Whether users discuss their daily lives is not the standard, though. On Twitter everyone just kvetches about the news, and it's still a social network.

I haven't started hearing the term "social network" until myspace showed up. While forums may be that by some technical definition, in practice, there seems to be a core difference.

For one, forum communities tend to be focused on a relatively small group of people in that forum.

Twitter, Facebook, etc., tend to be fully global with the idea that anyone can access anyone else. Presence of media, I think, also matters a lot. On many forums media exists, but is not visible to unregistered users. There's an aspect of "you join or you're an outsider, and if we don't like you we can make you stop joining".

I don't know if I can straight up define it but there seems to be some fundamental difference between Facebook and your random hardware forum.

I thought that sort of thing was rare on Twitter now. Twitter seems to usually be about topical things, news, and that ilk, no? It’s a social network.

I don't use social networks, unless you consider Reddit, HN and Youtube social networks.

Obviously, this is where the cool kids hang out.

We don't need those lame squares and their dank memes.