This is the age of network extinction. Small is trivial. Notorious vagueness and non-commitment on the side of slackerish members killed the once cute, postmodern construct of networks. Platforms did the rest. Decentralization may be the flavour of the day, but no one is talking about networks anymore as a solution for the social media mess. Where have all the networks gone?
(This essay was written in August 2019 for the INC/Transmediale co-publication The Eternal Network: The Ends and Becomings of Network Culture that came out on January 28, 2020 at the opening of the Berlin Transmediale festival. You can read and download the publication here. The essay was slightly shortened; below you will find the original text).