Is Social Networking Really Anti-Social?

Here is a perspective on Facebook that you don't hear too often.

I despise Facebook. This enormously successful American business describes itself as "a social utility that connects you with the people around you". But hang on. Why on God's earth would I need a computer to connect with the people around me? Why should my relationships be mediated through the imagination of a bunch of supergeeks in California? What was wrong with the pub?

And does Facebook really connect people? Doesn't it rather disconnect us, since instead of doing something enjoyable such as talking and eating and dancing and drinking with my friends, I am merely sending them little ungrammatical notes and amusing photos in cyberspace, while chained to my desk? A friend of mine recently told me that he had spent a Saturday night at home alone on Facebook, drinking at his desk. What a gloomy image. Far from connecting us, Facebook actually isolates us at our workstations.

Now, the article as a whole is a little bit out there, with the author claiming he hates Facebook because of the underlying political and philosophical ideas of the board members. And while I tend to agree with him that people are sheep-like in the short-term (which can be decades) I don't worry about it because society always moves towards a more rational and self-interested equilibrium in the long-term. Regardless of the core content of the article, I found the opening paragraphs interesting, and worth a read.