> call or text them
There is no difference between a call or text and a message on FB, the medium doesn't change the context.
There is no difference between a call or text and a message on FB, the medium doesn't change the context.
Phone calls are typically person-to-person communication where you can hear the tone of voice of the person you are talking to, so you can better read their meaning. Also, you typically call people you already know well enough to disturb. It's a very personal form of communication.
Facebook is different in all those areas. You are thrown into meaningless conversations with people you don't know where you can't hear anyone's one of voice. Some parts of facebook seem to be designed specifically to encourage more conversation instead of meaningful conversation - things like how you really have to dig to read earlier comments in a thread. They just want you to keep posting instead of following the actual discussion in a coherent way.
Likewise, posting on this site is different than having a conversation in person. You can't tell that I'm writing all this in a friendly tone. Instead, it might come across as an angry argument when I don't mean it that way. That's a disadvantage of this medium and a way in which it changes communication.
And if you do it right (meaning using the right app), your messages can be fully end-to-end encrypted so that no one can read them but the intended recipients.
EDIT: it is widely known that the NSA has direct lines into places like Google and Facebook so using Facebook Messenger still routes your messages through the NSA indirectly. The only logical course of action, if someone cares about that sort of thing, is to not use Facebook Messenger and limit the amount of eyes that can see your communications.
Maybe it's because it personally takes me more effort to make a phone call, or the added tone of voice, or maybe it's just the instant dialogue that the call creates. Calls will always be more special to me than a facebook message. Just as a handwritten birthday letter in the mail is more special than the same message in a text.