[zelphirkalt]

It is supposed to make you feel that way. That is on FB's agenda to achieve, in order to bind you to their (dis-)services.

Real friends will not require you to use FB and sacrifice your privacy to communicate with them. You might feel a loss, but there are alternative ways of communicating. Get as many friends as possible over to messengers, which are not owned by FB. Give people a call every now and then. Write them SMS, write them e-mail. All of that is better than communication on FB services. Real friends will initiate as well. If you are not on FB, they will have to contact you through other means. If you are not worth the "trouble" or effort in their eyes, then good riddance, you do not need them.

[dntrkv]

> If you are not worth the "trouble" or effort in their eyes, then good riddance, you do not need them.

Relationships are a spectrum, and your friends move around on that spectrum over time. Social media gives you the ability to maintain some kind of connection to people even though maybe at a certain point in time, those friends are distant from you on the spectrum. But that can change at any moment and having that line of communication makes it that much easier to reconnect at any given moment.

Sending a text or calling someone randomly is not always easy to do, especially if it's someone you haven't spoken to in a while. Whereas commenting on a post or replying to a story has much less friction and can result in reconnecting with people you otherwise wouldn't.

[VortexDream]

I guess you missed the part about meeting new people? I'm in contact with people I know over other apps. But there's no replacement for that discoverability of local groups and events or facilitating the meeting with new people.

[zelphirkalt]

When you meet friends, are there never new people around? Do they never introduce you to their other friends? How did people get to know people before FB became big?

There are other websites, where you can find local groups of people. Some also group you into local areas, so you know anyone around there will be living nearby.

I do not see a problem with meeting worthwhile new people.

"FB is the only way." or "there is no replacement" are an illusion.

[moate]

Meetup? Am I missing something that FB offered vs Meetup other than user base?

(TBH, I never used FB to meet new people, just encourage relationships with people I had met elsewhere and I haven't been on the platform in years)

[foxfluff]

Every time someone mentions meetup, I go check it out and search for events around me. Nothing in 50 miles.

[Invictus0]

People still use FB marketplace and events. If you can't be reached on events, many times you simply won't be invited.

[trhway]

many years ago you would similarly be excluded from some social stuff if you didn't smoke. That is one of the best business models around - tying, or better even locking in, people's socializing to your product. Humans, being a social animal, have very hard time getting out of such a trap.

[tharne]

Some of us see this as a feature and not a bug :)

[Invictus0]

Some of you are clearly not very social