Contradiction: social media and friendships (Score 1)

OP states

"The sharp rise in...the number of close friends occurred between 2008 and 2010 -- precisely when social media platforms and smartphones first achieved widespread adoption."

This claim that close friendships dramatically INCREASED by 2.5x with the advent of social media directly contradicts the many studies which find that social media leads to increased loneliness (AMA Journal of Ethics and PubMed Central). The phys.org story does not define "close friendships", though it is supposedly based on 30 different social connection studies in US and Europe.

When claiming that a well-established (dare I say "proven"?) finding (social media use increases loneliness) is untrue, one must present strong evidence. The study as presented so far fails to do that. It's hard to take the rest of the study seriously when it fails to explain, or even mention, its contradiction of the well-established finding that social media DECREASES social connection.