I love the arguments brought up by both sides. Very insightful and thought-provoking to read, especially when each argument is shaped by personal experiences and definitions. Also, the world has to end somehow sometime xD Lame jokes aside~

IMHO technology, being a tool, can give rise both positive and negative implications

It can be argued however that in smaller demographics, social media may not exert much of a negative influence. While one can easily form true connections (ignoring the fact that how true the relationship can be is debatable, because it could easily be a fraud or a poser) on small online communities, the same may not apply to larger ones. Personally I love smaller forums like PXR compared to bigger ones like PokeCommunity or Serebii because it's more lonely to be in a crowd, online or offline. Additionally, being able to communicate with people from other countries alone doesn't directly translate to being connected per se, since timezones sadly exist. Speaking from experience, if you're from an uncommon timezone, you might feel alone seeing that you're the only one from your side of the planet online. Real-time conversations are not as close since you and the other person might miss each other. So yeah, while it's great to be able to make many friends on social media, sometimes you might not always be able to talk to them as often as you'd like.

Another strong contention is the facade people put on when online. Are people really behaving as they do away from the screen? Social media platforms like Youtube, FaceBook, Instagram, Twitter, etc usually show only the positive stuff of the person. Most people, if not all, wouldn't upload content that reveal their flaws. People can post things just for the sake of 'likes' and instant gratification. But nobody else can tell if they're being genuine, especially if the acting is brillant (and given that the average IQ of such users is not quite high). I know a few schoolmates who have such starkly differing online and offline lives that I can be shocked on occasions that the persona I see online isn't like the one I see in school. This makes me question. Are people perpetuating their own loneliness, by not being themselves?

From my personal standpoint, social media can easily diminish one's loneliness as much as amplify it. It depends on how it's being used and of course, each individual's definition of loneliness.