http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/2010/03/the_social_media_bubble.html
I’d like to advance a hypothesis: Despite all the excitement surrounding social media, the Internet isn’t connecting us as much as we think it is. It’s largely home to weak, artificial connections, what I call thin relationships.
During the subprime bubble, banks and brokers sold one another bad debt — debt that couldn’t be made good on. Today, “social” media is trading in low-quality connections — linkages that are unlikely to yield meaningful, lasting relationships.
The Elements of User Experience
I pretty much just keep forgetting to post this here. It’s old, but still a great reference.