When you say it is a positive feedback loop, you already describe it as a self-augmenting vicious cycle. In such a cycle, the initial cause becomes soon less im

When you say it is a positive feedback loop, you already describe it as a self-augmenting vicious cycle. In such a cycle, the initial cause becomes soon less important. People might start to use a social network because they feel temporarily lonely, perhaps because they moved to another place. But if that social networks leads to people spending more time on the net than with people in real life, it very quickly contributes to that cause. A better question to ask would be whether Facebook increases self-confidence and leads to more self-validating social interaction outside of the Internet. Given what I see and hear, I don't believe this is the case.