Well that's funny, considering that I constantly meet cool people in person and then add them on Facebook to keep in touch.
The constant "Facebook is evil" makes no sense to me, as it's the easiest way to keep in touch with a wide variety of people around the world. If I deleted my Facebook, I'd lose touch with dozens of people worldwide. Could I email them? Sure, but that's broken and impersonal.
Because I have to look up their email (jabberwocky586@yahoo.com) and deliberately send them an email length message. On Facebook, I see their real name, their photo, their about page, and various recent things about their life. If I want to talk to them, I tap the chat bar and say two words.
Email is extremely cold and impersonal compared to Facebook chat. Most "normal" people don't use email outside of business or more specific uses.
Whereas to me, what you describe sounds fantastically superficial and impersonal, whereas in sending a personal eMail I've had to actually, deliberately think about my interaction with them. I suppose context goes a long way.
You don't have an address book? When I email someone I see their real name and photo too. I do miss out on where they had dinner last night or that they went to the beach, but that has nothing to do with anything.
The problem with your world view is that it doesn't take into account any major negative influences.
What if you gained 20 pounds? Or lost your boyfriend to your close friend? What has normally be associated with the family is now associated with the village, and that adds a lot of stress to people's lives.
Another problem is the us versus them that this group has enforces on people like me. I think I'm a pretty cool person, but if we met, I wouldn't have a facebook account to share with you. Would that affect your opinion of me? Maybe not, but I've had people comment negatively to it, and have even read articles proclaiming it affecting people economically due to potential social expectations now set by employers.
To me, it's a destructive force and a tool. A real-time chatting/messaging service that connects to an address list. And a new social experiment leading people down a path of "true" social alienation and narcissism.
I don't doubt that some people can use the tool responsibly, but it also leaves much to be desired for.
I wouldn't think less if you for not having a Facebook, but i'd probably become less of a good friend to you simply because of logistics.
I (as anyone who had traveled, I'm sure) have a lot of friends on Facebook whom I met on a trip. Maybe we only had a beer and hung out for 3 hours. But since we added each other on Facebook, we're able to keep in touch. I talk to foreign friends via Facebook all the time.
So instead of my buddy in Brazil that I met in NYC, you'd just be some random cool guy I knew once.
Well if you name someone a friend you have talked to 3 hours and you are sharing FB links with, than you have a totally different understanding of the meaning of the word "friend" than me.
The constant "Facebook is evil" makes no sense to me, as it's the easiest way to keep in touch with a wide variety of people around the world. If I deleted my Facebook, I'd lose touch with dozens of people worldwide. Could I email them? Sure, but that's broken and impersonal.