a Belgian-American psychotherapist who studies human relationships: “Modern loneliness masks itself as hyper connectivity. And so people have easily 1000 virtual friends, but no one they can ask to feed their cat.”

The writing on this subject I’ve found most interesting is Rosie Spinks’ “The Friendship Problem,” which argues that informal friendships have died in part due to the rise of social media and the desire to optimize our lives. This loss of this informal friendship gives rise to the formal friendship – think painstakingly planning hangouts weeks in a... See more