Facebook effectively achieved that vision and then blew it up in the name of money. It was a service that showed you the posts of your connected friends. Those days are long gone. They burned peoples trust in them. If you want to connect with far away friends and family then FB is no longer the appropriate tool. It should have been.
Although I'll say this as someone who has moved far away on more than one occasion: keeping in touch with the people you left behind via digital means is no replacement for being with them and a distraction from making new friends. People do the same stuff for the most part, and one persons new baby looks pretty much the same as another's. You really don't need to keep constant touch, you'll cover 20 years of important things in a 30 minute conversation down the pub when you go home.
