Social media is a social disease.
Facebook coming around during my later years of highschool has caused it to be a less professional alternative to linkdin in terms of networking.
While posting for 'likes' goes beyond any sense of reason, remaining 'in-contact', however superficial, has proven much easier and fruitful than to not participate at all.
Social media is not a disease in itself. It is the apparent growing self-impression of unfounded importance that has driven people over the edge.
Nobody's interested whether you positioned your pasta differently on a plate and took a picture of it using 20 filters, and photoshop. Likes have no quantifiable influence on ones life.
Communicating and superficially staying updated with people for future purposes, however, should not be disregarded due to this insane practice.