I'm with you on this, my dad has actually remained "messed up" financially- and career-wise, even though he was a brilliant student and young civil construction engineer back in the day. Of course I love him and think of him as one of the smartest and most intelligent people I have ever talked to, but I cringe at the thought of what would have happened to him on an emotional level if he were to had access to Facebook, for the reasons you describe above (he and mom live in the countryside now, I've brought them an old PC some time ago but thought it best not to install them Internet).
For a possible solution, I think that at some point we will be forced to retreat from this online social mess we've become entangled in, if not by our own will maybe at least our subconscious will force us to. Could be that it's all just a craze.