Much of the conversation in this thread leaves me a bit sad. Depriving a person a social interaction is some of the harshest punishment given in the US prison system. To assert that instagram, or emojis, or VR is devaluing that in some way doesn’t sit right with me. Even a conversation I might view as “worthless” still gives deep insight into that persons inner thought process. And I’m certain I’d rather have worthle…
I can't agree. Except in what I can only imagine are niche communities I have not experienced a "modern" conversation that could match what I would consider social interaction. Certainly you could come up with probably 1,000 counter examples, but from my sample of interactions on discord/instagram/etc (before I got rid of all of it) the vast majority of interactions were parasitic in nature. It was nothing like the forums of yore, pre-eternal-september USENET, etc. There's a reason people are so depressed these days. The social interactions the average terminally online person gets only have a veneer of reality associated to them. You only notice it once you manage to disconnect and compare those interactions to the real world. I've had better conversations with a half cocked patron at a bar than I have had on any given "modern" avenue of communication.
No amount of technology will ever surpass actual human connection until our forebrains permanently melt away. At the end of the day we are constantly trying to "connect better" when the answer is, unironically, to simply go outside.