Is Facebook making us lonely? Some say social media keeps us connected. Others argue that it breeds loneliness.

• Position: Debate

YES The idea behind Facebook is to make us feel connected all the time. But in my research, interviewing hundreds of teens about what life with Facebook is like day-to-day, I've found that things are more complex.

Technology, it turns out, has made being alone seem like a problem that needs solving. When young people are alone, even for a minute or two, they feel the need to connect, to get on Facebook or some other social network or text service and chat. But in connecting, they often end up feeling more isolated. Why? Because by being in constant connection, we lose the capacity to feel content in our own company.

If you don't learn how to be alone, you'll only know how to be lonely. If you can't be content by yourself, without being compelled to constantly connect, you lose the ability to think your own thoughts and be ready to share them in conversation, in collaboration, and in a friendship.

The key to avoiding loneliness is the quality of our social interactions, not the quantity. Research shows that a lot of online communication with little substance can sometimes make us feel more alone.

Facebook can help us keep in touch with our friends, but we too often use it as a substitute for spending face-to-face time with them. And since we feel the need to keep up with them online, we don't find moments of solitude where we can gather our thoughts and learn to be alone. This is perhaps the greatest cost of constant connection.

--SHERRY TURKLE

Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

NO Facebook connects more of us to more of our friends and family in more places than we have ever been connected before. Every "Like" we hit, every "Share" we press, every comment we post is a way for us to renew--on a tiny scale--our connections with our friends.

Yes, Facebook is a huge...