(Hi!) I think I’m seeing it, too. A number of IRL friends I’ve made were originally just known online until I moved out and we began hanging out in person (after we confirmed none of us are secretly human traffickers). I believe that non-virtual connection is always going to remain important. People who are social butterflies use things like Discord, Instagram, datings apps, and Twitter to really just optimize what they already had going for them in real life, and are having more success than they could have had in a past time, imo.
this is a minimal connection made as part of a virtual outing. (hello.)
many widely-held constructs are getting redefined. like what it means to be “social” or “connected.”
zuck wasn’t wrong, but metaverse is already here. it’s just the internet, and we are slowly integrating it more fully into ourselves.