"Since its founding, Facebook has described itself as a kind of public service that fosters relationships. In 2005, not long after the site's launch, its co-founder Mark Zuckerberg described the network as an "icebreaker" that would help you make friends. Facebook has since become Meta, with more grandiose ambitions, but its current mission statement is broadly similar: "Build the future of human connection and the technology that makes it possible.""
"But a new era of deeper, better human fellowship has yet to arrive. Just ask Zuckerberg himself. "There's a stat that I always think is crazy," he said in April, during an interview with the podcaster Dwarkesh Patel. "The average American, I think, has fewer than three friends. And the average person has demand for meaningfully more; I think it's like 15 friends or something, right?""
Facebook positioned itself as a public-service tool to foster relationships and later rebranded as Meta with a mission to build human connection through technology. More than three billion people use Meta products and many more use rival platforms that promise community. Despite widespread use, deeper, more meaningful fellowship has not materialized. Social ties appear to be weakening as people spend more time on phones and seek endless engagement on social media. Face-to-face socialization has declined over the past fifteen years, and large online friend counts often do not reflect real friendships. Tech leaders frame declining social ties as opportunities for technological solutions.
Read at The Atlantic
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