[wccrawford]

They may not "take people out of society", but they relieve a stress that would otherwise cause them to continue trying to enter society.

Or, you know, go crazy and do something bad.

As a pretty severe introvert, it's not hard for me to imagine "friends apps" getting good enough to provide a lot of comfort when I was younger, and if you grow up with them being a thing, you don't question them as much.

In fact, if "friend apps" were good enough to play video games on a decent level, I'm absolutely sure I'd use them instead of trying to deal with random jerks when playing multiplayer games.