As troutman stated, forums are social media. It seems you are making or coming into this as there is a distinction, what are these distinctions?
Other than layout but that differs from every site.
Would reddit be considered a forum or social media? Youtube?
At times I wouldn't mind the reddit style of posting for the larger threads on here. When major news happens I don't care to read through page upon page of simply "Woo!" "Awesome" or other 'pointless' posts. I want content, developed thoughts, analysis. A reddit style would allow thoughtful posts to be voted up and generate conversation from each original thought therof. Sometimes I come into a thread 10 pages deep and want to comment on a post that was on page 1 or 2. On page 10 that is too late as others have moved on.
Of course there would still be the jokes and what not, but those would mainly be contained in the threads within the topic which users can choose to read or not.
__________________
|