As long as there are people out there smart enough to use company independent communication solutions I'm fine with networking with them. There are mail, irc and forums. They existed before AOL, MySpace or fb. Independent communication assures it still works, even if a node says goodbye and THIS is the idea behind how the Internet was designed. That's what I'd literally tell everyone regardless of their position when questioned about my means and methods of communication. It's the way the others do it that leads the concepts behind the net ad absurdum.
Re nontechnical methods of social networking: my connector doesn't follow cat-5 standard
it's still bio interface running with male-to-female protocols.