Social Networking: better or worse than the real thing.

Social networking is the interaction of people using technology. Examples of such are sites like Facebook, Myspace, and Xanga. It allows people to find one another and get connected without even having to meet face to face. Now the question is, is this good or bad. My concept of the idea is that though it helps us get in contact with lost friends or distant families, people also use it to talk to their neighbors. They take the face to face interaction out of the equation and as result we have people sit indoors all day on their butts talking to people through Facebook instead of the traditional hanging out for a bite to eat and open discussions on their lives over a hot meal. I'm sure there are many pros and cons on this debate but, do you think that the pros really outweigh the cons?