New friends acquired through MySpace or Facebook may as well be invisible. England's Sheffield Hallam University, studying whether social networks ease the friend-making process, has concluded that "online only" relationships are extremely shallow. It determined that 90 percent of close online connections met in real life. Well, duh. Most use networks to keep in touch with people they already know, or, perhaps, reach out to friends of friends. Who actively cultivates all those unsolicited Facebook friend requests from total strangers? (Photo by ellectric)

Contact information for this author is not available.