Can social media networks stand in for real life friendships?

Paula Rice of Island City, Kentucky said that the social media network Eons gave her "a reason to keep on going” according to the New York Times.

Rice is 73, retired and was lonely.

“One of the greatest challenges or losses that we face as older adults, frankly, is not about our health, but it’s actually about our social network deteriorating on us, because our friends get sick, our spouse passes away, friends pass away, or we move,” said Joseph F. Coughlin, director of the AgeLab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

An interesting read.