No, it's not an illusion and it has nothing to do with facebook only relationships (I don't even know what that is). All the people I contact on facebook I have in person relationships with. For well over the past 3 years its primary function has been as an organizational tool for my close group of friends. Few of us update our status or regularly post on there anymore. They live in different cities, states, or countries now. Groups and events make a fantastic way to plan a vacation with friends and has all the interactive features you'd want for that sort of a thing (messages, RSVP, polls, etc) that e-mail simply can't give you, and the fact that facebook is completely ubiquitous among my friends make it really the only choice for the job (although I do suspect this is due to our age range- we are all mostly in our early 30's - I think if we were older or younger this would not be as true).

Until someone makes an organizing tool that can break the network effect facebook has with my friend group, I'll have a facebook account.

Its not that hard to sign up for an account on airtable or trello or whatever service.

It is hard to have all your friends on that specific service.

> Until someone makes an organizing tool that can break the network effect facebook has with my friend group, I'll have a facebook account.

Is that really something people do - substitute in person relationships for Facebook ones? "I could hang out with my SO today, but I guess I'll just go on FB instead"

Many people do this habitually, though not so explicitly.

Well, every time you choose to do one thing, you also choose to not do a million other things.

A lot of people are experiencing real harm to their mental state from habitual social media use.

In person relationships being more rewarding doesn't mean that Facebook has no value. I personally get a lot of value out of being on Facebook

Many of us have family spread all over the country. I can keep in contact with them all via a facebook group instead of one at a time over the phone or group text (...not that my mother would understand how to do that) or the like. Even if you don't appreciate how it connects you to your friends (if it even does), surely you can appreciate how it can connect you to your family.

I completely agree. I don't use FB for anything other than keeping up with my family that live in different states. I don't have any casual friends on FB, and especially not co-workers. For seeing pictures of my nieces and nephews and various family gatherings that I can't be a part of FB works fine. But I don't follow any brands or willingly subject myself to advertising...all the stuff that FB wants you on their platform for I willingly ignore.

I refuse to add family on FB because I try not to use it at all. There are some community groups that I use it for or I'll be left in the dark. I've had good luck getting family on Keybase. No ads, no frills. Messages, groups, photos and encryption. What isn't too like. I like my git repo, but that is just a bonus.