[jimkleiber]

I feel a similar worry. I'm a man in my thirties as well, Midwestern American culture which has a similar focus on work and nuclear family, and yet my work for the last 9 years has been focused on emotional communication. I see lots of social pressure that if one has emotional intimacy anywhere, it's with the nuclear family, typically just with the romantic partner. Outside of that (or even in those relationships), it almost becomes taboo to express one's fuller range of emotions.

So yes, I wish we don't have to cut off our digital ties to others where we may still be maintaining some of those non-work, non-family relationships.