I think this is the sort of thing that's a matter of preference rather than one being inherently better than the other.
Personally I despise social networks. I think they would be better called "unsocial network" or "antisocial network" because they almost invariably bring out the worst in people. I've all but given up on social media because of the tidal wave of advertising, censorship and what I struggle to find a term for other than "human detritus". You know, the people who "follow the science" behind every issue but can't say anything intelligent because all they have is endless appeals to authority. Then there are the people who have their own view and anyone with a differing view is an (expletive) who is brainwashed by Fox/CNN/whatever.
On a relatively small forum you can figure whether at least most of the people are enjoyable to interact with. If a forum has a lot of people who become annoying past a certain point you can move to another forum. With the likes of Twitface there are increasingly few options.
