[AndrewDucker]

That's great if you're cultivating a very small group of friends who are local.

Social media is how I keep vaguely aware of what's going on with my friends who now live scattered across the planet and get to see in person once per decade or so.

[rTX5CMRXIfFG]

I’m gonna break it to you bud, the people you see only once a decade or so aren’t your friends. Those are shallow acquaintances that you’re letting drag on for too long. They’re not a part of your life and you’re not a part of theirs.

At most, you can call them professional contacts whom you hope to get some value out of in the future, and in that sense I’d agree — social media makes it possible to keep in touch with people whom you have a transactional relationship with.

[watwut]

They dont drag me. They add positive stuff to my life, once in a while, and that is super cool. And they dont ask much in exchange, just for me to not be a jerk in that situation.

And all of them are relationships with someone I already know, can ve safer around then random and some of them grow again into more active friendships in right situation.

And yes, that friendship happens again thing is real.

[fragmede]

"Drag on for too long" Who are you to dictate how other people connect. The word friend is not well defined, but a person I know from my past that I'm able to keep in contact with, thanks to the magic of technology, that I want to have some communication with, is a something.

[rTX5CMRXIfFG]

Everything is not well defined as long as you don’t think about it hard enough. With that attitude, you can dismiss any genuinely thoughtful question with potentially painful answers, which is why a lot of people like it.