The social aspect is irrelevant. You'll stilll be living with your flat mates and have to share kitchen/common room areas anyway.
Self catered is usually cheaper. Your breakfast/dinner is usually at set times and it sucks to have to fit your schedule around these timings. If you miss it, you will have to cook by yourself anyway.
Also, what if the food is crap? I found the food to be quite repetitive in halls and youll get sick of it fast if thats the case.