[strken]

This resonates with me for some things, but there are two very unrelatable parts.

I play video games with acquaintances and friends who I've known for years. They're fulfilling in the same way a zoom chat or phone call is, and they're much better than watching alone. Video games aren't a substitute for in-person contact, but what is? Some of the malaise from games seems to come from the ephemeral nature of matchmaking, where you're not playing with or against people you know and there's no community, but this is a solvable problem.

When I'm head-down on a train staring at my phone, I'm either messaging the people I'm about to meet up with, or I'm reading a book. Conor's problem seems as much aesthetic as behavioural: he doesn't like the cold sterile white rectangle, but at a guess he'd be happier if I was holding a warm off-yellow-beige paper slab and turning the pages.