[jjulius]

I've felt something similar about the internet for a very long time. Time and again I've seen people talk about how they don't have a lot of friends, or that it's hard to make friends, or social interactions are a struggle, which is why the internet is great. I see those comments a lot on HN too, even in this very thread. Hell, I said similar stuff myself when I was younger.

But the more you lean on the internet or on technology, the more you feed that feedback loop of "in-person interaction = hard". Yes, things are difficult, but you're never going to figure out how to be comfortable in those situations if you're not actively putting yourself in them. Growth takes struggle, and I say that with all the empathy in the world.

As Snaut says in Solaris, man needs man.