My personal anecdote. I'm still very good friends with all of my friends from high school and college and it is almost entirely due to the ability to constantly group message. We all talk almost every day and I've since lost contact with most friends not included in the 3 group chats I have. We're all in our mid 20's now so getting together is more difficult but since we talk so often it drives us to hang out in person more. In the absence of constant communication we would probably all drift apart and rarely if ever hang out in person. There's a big difference between generic public social media interaction and smaller more intimate direct messaging and group chats. It's definitely different for kids cause they are forced to spend all day together in school but I think there is immense value for adults.