Has social media devalued the concept of friendship?

I'd like to argue the opposite perspective. That is, social media has strengthened friendships.

Sharing experiences strengthens friendships; it creates an idea which is shared among multiple people and can be used as a basis for interaction. Before the Internet, this would mean having to either do something together physically, or share some physical document of an event, whether it be a letter, souvenir, etc. With social media sites, it became possible to share idea quickly and easily. This lowered the bar for what experiences were worth sharing (publicly, no less), but this hasn't made experience sharing worse at strengthening friendships. Instead, it allows a friendship to be created and maintained despite physical boundaries.

Social media provides a framework for making friends. When you add someone as a "friend" on a site, it's often not a confirmation that you are already friends, but that you wish to become friends. The site then provides the infrastructure to make that friendship happen. I'd also like to point out that some people here, on Idea Project, have said that treated each other as friends despite knowing each other for a short time. This would not have been possible without Discord and the forums.