>>822303nobody really has friends anymore in the year 2026, the web 2.0 internet has pretty much destroyed our ability to be much more than casual acquaintances with other people. we're so emotionally stunted by selective exposure and echo chamber dynamics and cheap parasocial substitutes that we are unwilling to pay the costs of genuine friendship, i.e. listening to someone else's problems, being vulnerable and sharing our innermost feelings, making and keeping plans and promises, having difficult conversations about serious issues, having the occasional unpleasant fight to air out grievances and harbored resentment, having to swallow our pride and risk rejection by attempting to patch things up after the fight and salvage the friendship, etc. we've become a society of people who can only take and can never give, all friends are just fairweather friends now. you should count yourself lucky, you never experienced genuine friendship so it's not as much of a loss to you.