Social networking IS the Internet in many ways. It’s been a natural extension of the Internet since the early days of forums and things like IRC.

To say social networking is a failed experiment is to say that the Internet is a failed experiment - nonsense.

Now I think what you mean to say is that you don’t like the UX of algorithmic feeds and firehose-style content/advertising. That’s fair.

But to write off social networking as a concept? That’s silly. The internet is so powerful because it is social.

The internet is inherently social, we don't need to reify that aspect in explicit sites for 'social networking'. It's a weird cargo-culty skeumorphism of a natural thing. I think we need maybe point-to-point and broadcast comm standards but not social networking sites that try to trap you and own you

I agree in the sense that any social media website which aims to create social interactions on a larger scale than the vast majority of humans are used to is a breeding ground for behavior like anonymous harassment etc. IMO the forum-type model is the best type of social media that i've seen from a community and usability perspective