> Should we go back to the days of communicating to each other via letters?
Or email, or phone, etc. There is no lack of other communications channels.
That said, I'm not in favor of banning these services. I just think society in general, and people in particular, would be better off if they stopped using them.
I haven't used social media for several years, and my life is in no way poorer for it. I miss out on nothing.
How are you going to communicate with a group of peers who all need to know everyone's responses to your messages... by mail? Do you realize how long this will take and how cumbersome it will be?
How would you make it possible for others, who weren't part of the conversation to come later and rediscover your entire conversation letter by letter?
Letters aren't a good replacement to social networks if you are thinking about a pre-digital age. Newspapers that publish paid advertisements are probably a better replacement... but they also don't quite fit because they lack the function of private messaging...
I don't think we have an equivalent to social networks in pre-digital world.
I'd argue so. People put more thought into letters, since producing and sending them involved expense of time and effort. Laziness was its own spam filter.