As someone who has taught networking skills for decades, I would gently call this one out. Your personal experience might be this but that doesn't mean this applies across the board. I taught collaborative connections with the primary emphasis on how to be of service first, and how to pay it forward before the movie made the term popular. I ran a professional womens networking group which got written up in a best selling book because of the principles I taught. The BUSINESS version of this can indeed be predatory. But with all respect, all networking doesn't fall into this category. It's the intentions behind the outreach. When someone only wants to sell you shit, that's predatory, see LinkedIn. However I've taught these skills for years with the emphasis on being willing to make a difference, share resources and being an includer. I'm sorry that your experience is otherwise, but as with all ALL or NOTHING categorizations, it's not black and white. Lots of variations on a theme, and a lot of very good people out there teaching how to build community via networking that has nothing at all to do with using people.