networking...not just people makeing nets

We where given the task of arguing for or against the following statement:
'The essential point of networking is human contact; business has killed networking by making it something for the career orientated person.'

When I was first given this statement I wasn’t sure what to think, True I did believe that networking was an important part of business, for instance my sister and I went on a company picnic with our dad, the first thing she did when she turned up was to mentioned networking. When I asked her why she said networking is the key to changing jobs and climb the career ladder.

So my first thought was yes, business has killed social networking. It did seem that I over looked one major website that 50 million people have profiles for*.
One word Facebook, The fun social network site, just mention the name and virtually anyone will give you there contact name.
Not only Facebook but there are other websites that provided social networks if only on a more basic scale, for instance WAUN (initials for: where are you now) which is a website offering social networking with the edition of travel guides made by users.

How can a websites with that many users not prove the above statement wrong?

I believe that the statement above is wrong.
To many peoples minds the word networking does scream business, but people create social networks without even thinking.
So I ask in turn if you continue to create social networks without consciously thinking about it.
How could business kill off an unconscious habit?


*as of November 2007 found on WikiAnswers at: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_people_have_a_facebook