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The discussion of social networking and the small net got me thinking. The problem with social networking is that people follow people, not topics. That's not a new idea. I borrowed it from someone else, but I cannot recall the source. Let me elaborate on it.
When I went online in the early 1990s, we formed communities based on shared interest or belief. Examples include mailing lists, usenet newsgroups, IRC channels, BBS message bases, and so forth. That's how it was for decades, and it's still common. Sometime in the mid-2000s, the phenomena of "social networking" and "social media" appeared. Instead of joining communities based around some shared idea or interest, people were encouraged to follow other people.
Social networking doesn't build communities. It builds cliques, like the kind we had back in high school. Facebook and its ilk have turned the Internet into a popularity contest, much as Amazon et al have turned it into a tacky shopping mall.
I'd be happy to consign the whole idea of social networking to the rubbish bin of history.