I think social networks should be solving 3 of my searches:
1) who should I start a company with?
2) who should I hang out with?
3) who should I make babies with?
Right now, they pretty much are failing at all of the above.
I agree that they are failing at all of the above.
I disagree that they are attempting to solve any of those problems.
There are websites aimed at helping you with #3-- but that's a pretty narrow type of "social network".
For questions like #1, there are sites such as this one, and relevant blogs, where you can discuss business ideas and find like-minded folks.
For questions like #2, you're probably better off walking away from the screen, and mingling in the flesh.
It seems to me that "social networks" are aiming at a different kettle of fish altogether, which is to reduce the friction in maintaining certain types of casual relationships.
Right, and the question remains, are they after the right goal? I think the three I outlined above should be the real goals of a social network -- getting me in touch with the people that I don't know but should know.
I kind of disagree with you on #2. While I agree that it is important to walk away from the screen, social networking can tell you in which direction you should walk. There is no substitute for mingling in the flesh, but it helps if the place you are mingling at is a place visited by people potentially worth mingling with, and there online networks can help a lot.
I think there's some confusion about what "networking" (as a verb) might mean. In the "old school" sense, networking meant "expanding one's network of contacts"-- the object being to collect contacts that might prove fruitful down the road.
"Social networking", on the other hand, may not share this objective. Personally speaking, I use Facebook to stay in touch with my (existing) network of friends, and have absolutely no interest in "friending" people I am not actually, in real life, friends with. The value to me comes not from expanding the network, but in nurturing the existing relationships.
I use facebook for social networking. Social as in socializing.
That is, I meet people in a social setting, such as a house party, a the choir I sing in, people that visit my roommate, or even potentially just random encounters in a public place. Then, I establish contact via facebook for future social activity.
In many cases, these people are already friends with someone in my friend list. This means that tracking them down is very easy. (It is also easy for them to track me down, if they so desire). I look them up on facebook, friend them, and the next time I am interested in inviting them to something they are easy to reach.
That's what networking is, by your own definition: interacting with people in your fields of interest. And that's what facebook is good at. The list of dormant collections that is a typical friend list is still an excellent tool for establishing new contact, even if you don't technically 'meet' for the first time online.
The purpose of social activity is not research, or content sharing. The purpose of social activity is to connect with other human beings and share life, because this makes us happy.
However, that's not a universal approach to socialization. For example, I don't view my online socializing as a direct extension of my offline socializing. They have different roles.
I don't need to follow my sister on facebook, I just meet up with her to talk. I really don't need to see what statuses by strangers my long-time friends "liked", I'd much rather just meet up with them in some interesting place for a vacation. And if I am connected to them online, I have no use for a notice that a friend is DJing at such and such club on the other side of the earth in 5 days, but I'd like to share music we are working on or books we are reading, so I connect with them on platforms designed to share those things.
Online socializing also provides the opportunity to be exposed the ideas, work and output of people who I couldn't meet any other way. As a result, when I'm online I seek out strangers who are working in domains that interest me, read what they say, check out their work, discuss things with them and collaborate on creating things.
So, in my situation, I relate to the author's approach: I seek out content. I strongly prefer discussion-centric platforms like forums and the only social networks I use heavily are either domain-specific, like goodreads or linkedin, or content-centric, like github, soundcloud, vimeo and even, to some degree at least, twitter. Friendster, Myspace and Facebook have never been interesting to me.
It's just a different perspective. Different people simply have different interests and differing socialization patterns. Personally, I find these differences fascinating.
This is mainly done old-school with cell-phone numbers. And has always a strict reason like supporting an application.
Private
Nowadays it's just twitter, jabber and facebook. The first one is used for the internet-savvy communities but not too technical. The second one is for the most technical community, mostly they don't have a twitter-account here in Germany. The last one is mainly for real friends I stay connected with.
Right now, they pretty much are failing at all of the above.