We've essentially transitioned from 'social networks' to 'content streams'. The evolutionary steps we went through were just pathfinding to get to where consumers always wanted to be: a nonstop amusement drip.
For that reason I think that what we think of as social networks really are dead. It's not what people truly wanted in the first place.
> It's not what people truly wanted in the first place.
The transition towards "a nonstop amusement drip" has been gradual and effective but it doesn't mean that the current situation was what people always wanted from the start. This has been the evolutionary journey of companies in search of maximum profitability. It has never been exclusively about what people want, it's also about what maintains profitable engagement and eyeballs for advertisers.
There's a general sentiment that people don't like the addictive nature of social media (see other comments in this thread). Social media users have become boiled frogs as the heat has been turned up on monetizing attention. I think it's fair to say that we've not landed on the optimal solutions for social networking just yet.
IMHO the current social networking market has reached an evolutionary dead-end. The platforms are all converging on a "content stream" model or group chat. I think that there are plenty more opportunities for digital social networking that get closer to what people really want but these opportunities are hard to see. Functional fixedness[0] is the biggest barrier to imagining what comes next but more possibilities exist than these.
For that reason I think that what we think of as social networks really are dead. It's not what people truly wanted in the first place.