I work at Facebook. I think that social networking unfairly gets a bad rap from many engineers. Maybe this is because many of us view, or viewed, socializing and maintaining friendships as a waste of time. I think that is a mistake. Socializing is something that's a core part of what it is to be human, and Facebook is a tool to help people to do that.

My entire family and many of my friends live in another country. Apart from infrequent Skype calls the only way I can interact with them is via Facebook. I am closer to them now than when I lived an hour's drive away and we communicated by email. The first pictures my parents will see of their grandchildren will be on Facebook. It's awesome to think that I've helped build something that is helping millions of other people in the same way.

Social networking isn't a fad, about sharing cat pictures, or something bored teenagers do. Engineers look at Facebook and see a web site built in PHP with "a nice tech stack". Everyone else sees a way to fulfill their need to connect with people.