I think you’re just using the wrong platforms for that experience.
I’ve been on Telegram for ages and talk daily to people who live on the other side of the world. I’ve never met them in person but we’ve had rich, personal, discussions and I consider them my friends.
On the meatspace side I video call daily with my childhood friends even though we’re hours away. I’m not sure how I could have kept up my friendship if I didn’t have modern technology to video call, game, instant message etc. We always end up grounding it with visits every two months or so but it’s essential to my relationship to stay in the loop.
I’m hopeful for protocols like Matrix and ActivityPub continue taking off where monetization is an issue but they place communication as paramount.
More “modern retro-tech” like Gemini is also promising. I made a great friend there which I feel is related to self-selection - as in, maybe most of the people on Twitter and Facebook aren’t a good fit for a HN netizen.
I’ve been on Telegram for ages and talk daily to people who live on the other side of the world. I’ve never met them in person but we’ve had rich, personal, discussions and I consider them my friends.
On the meatspace side I video call daily with my childhood friends even though we’re hours away. I’m not sure how I could have kept up my friendship if I didn’t have modern technology to video call, game, instant message etc. We always end up grounding it with visits every two months or so but it’s essential to my relationship to stay in the loop.