Facebook Is the Junk Food of Socializing (2015)
These articles ignore people’s real alternatives. I’m in my 30s and have a small child. While I love to fly into Chicago or New York for a night of drinking with my still-single friends, that’s not really something I get to do more than once every couple of months. Seeing my wife’s extended family (3,000 miles away in the west coast) is a once every year thing, and seeing my extended family (7,000 miles away in Asia) is maybe a once a decade thing. But Facebook lets me see the woodworking project my Chicago friend is working on, the delicious things my father in law is making for the holidays, and at least know what my cousins’ kids look like these days. Far from being junk food, Facebook lets me maintain the most basic and important human relationships.<p>What did people in my situation do before Facebook? My parents, like most baby boomers I suspect, weren’t going out in the evenings to see friends in person. They’d sit down in front of the TV after work. Their social lives were narrow, focused heavily on home life and the kids. That’s what Facebook is replacing, and it’s a huge improvement.