>It bothers me when people apply a new buzzword to an old concept. Calling things like HN and forums "Social Media" is no more descriptive than calling a garbage truck driver a "sanitation engineer."

But it's a social... version of media...

What exactly is wrong with using a properly descriptive term that is in popular usage? Almost entirely unlike your garbage truck driver.

It's more like telling that a truck driver works in transportation or logistics. The thing is, of course forums and IM were here since a long time. But different developments have made people aware of it around 2005, it's gotten a lot more pervasive in everyone's life, and so there is now a category for it. The classification of new phenomenons often take a few years until someone can "abstract" it together and explain it. The fact that people here discuss together, meet, share makes it social, no matter what other people tag with that word. Every trend can be subject to abuse, for sure.