I sympathise of course on this matter and think the net effect of social media on society is greatly negative. But this sentence — that one can find in many version — always strikes me as very superficial. Our willingness/ability to form real relationships started to decline way before social media appeared. Their roots is to be found on the turn towards individualism and self-referentiality that came about as part of a well-studied social philosophy society called “disenchantment of the world” (see Max Weber, Theodor Adorno, the Frankfurt School). Extreme narcissism and individualism — as i wrote elsewhere — is characterised by an internalisation of our morals. This identity only allows social connections as far as (and until then) they help us to reach our ideal. So if social media undoubtedly accelerated our individualism, by no means it is the main cause of our lack of ‘real’ friendships.