It's a link to people I know from real life, by their real names. Family and friends. People I have some level of emotional connection to such that I have some

It's a link to people I know from real life, by their real names. Family and friends. People I have some level of emotional connection to such that I have some level of interest in seeing pictures of what they do in their leisure time, how their kids are growing up and so on. Staying in touch with them by the many other forms of communication available would be such a pain, just because there are so many. I've spent a lot of time on pseudonymous online communities - slashdot, reddit, hacker news and others - and although there is always interesting discussion, I don't feel anything like the same interest in other posters as I do in say my housemate from 2003-2005. Don't get me wrong, Facebook-the-company and Facebook-the-algorithmically-generated-feed are fairly vile, but the USP, the network effect is something that has emotional worth to a lot of people.