Facebook: Where friendships go to never quite die

“(Facebook) has created an entirely new category of relationship — the vestigial friendship. It’s the one you’ve evolved out of, the one that would normally have faded out of your life, but which, thanks to Facebook, is instead still hanging around.”

“Having many Facebook friends, then, is kind of like having a big old encyclopedia. Most of the time it’s just gathering dust on a shelf but you keep it around anyway, because one day you might need it.”

The Atlantic