I’m increasingly convinced it’s much easier (and happier) to assume strangers are friends you haven’t met yet, than to assume strangers will remain strangers.

Extrapolating this into the realm of strangers, I worry that if we let our real-life interactions be corralled by our filter bubbles and branded identities, we are also running the risk of never being surprised, challenged, or changed—never seeing anything outside of ourselves, including our own privilege

- The world has shifted from the mindset of, “Never meet people from the internet,” to, “Only meet people from the internet“

Imagine how much relationships would change if people went into one thinking “how can I make this person’s life better” instead of “how can this person make my life better”

But gradually, social-media users became more comfortable sharing intimate details of their lives with strangers and corporations. ... They became more adept at putting on performances and managing their personal brand—activities that might impress others but that do not deepen friendships in the way that a private phone conversation will.  On... See more

Increasingly Obvious Tha...

Still, as Baszucki made clear, the goal is still actual social networking: surely that will always be better than interacting with an AI! Or will it? It seems to me that perhaps the most important constraint on the web — to actually interact with people as if they are, well, people — disappeared a long time ago.