This is why I am limiting my online time these days. As I felt more isolated, all these online tools and apps made it so much easier to sink even further into isolation. Even though I could stay in touch over un-social media, it was not the same. Getting out again has allowed me to experience those small interactions you speak of, the chance encounters. It allows me to observe the good as well as bad, but it is not curated by some algorithm.
For sure. Yet while most people feel that disconnection, they double-down and dive in for more, because it allows them to escape the feeling and gives them some sense they are on the right track, because everyone else is doing it...