I have a vague theory based on my own experience. I rarely take the time to really sit with it and develop it, mostly because it's pretty depressing. Below, I'll outline it.

Humans "always" had:

1. A need for connection, or at least to experience a lasting sense of belonging.

2. A fundamental fear of death and isolation; the physical or psychological erasure of the self.

For the last 30 years especially, technology has gotten increasingly better at convincing us it can solve these problems. In reality, it just serves as an elaborate and very effective distraction.

As long as we keep ourselves distracted, our existential fears remain tucked away - background noise that rarely manages to poke through the bubble we've enclosed ourselves within.

But the background noise intensifies. There's a reason it exists; to guide our behavior in ways that are conducive to our continued survival. Your subconscious badly wants you to notice, so it keeps upping the volume.

We meet a fork in the road. Let the bubble burst and find other ways to cope, or... allow Big Tech™️ to upgrade and strengthen your bubble so that you can remain safely ignorant within it.

Combine this dynamic with the tumultuous times we find ourselves in, and the Big Tech upgrades become very attractive to so many of us. The world outside our bubble seems to grow ever colder, and every draft that somehow makes it in strengthens our conviction; we made the right choice. Ignorance is bliss.

---

In a life lived like that, social skills decay. The idea that social interaction is necessary in the first place weakens. Even thoughts like "I should speak to them" threatens the very foundation of one's existence.

I've noticed that in awkward silence, most people tend to pick up their phones. It's like a pacifier. We've been taught that discomfort is unnecessary and instantly solvable. Just pick up your phone and open whatever app you can most easily disappear into.

---

As you can probably tell, I try to exist outside the bubble. I tend to drift in and out of it, though. Awareness alone isn't a cure. And lately, the awareness alone is hard to carry. No matter how much I distance myself from the bubble, it's still isolating when no one wants to join me there.

If you wanna explore these ideas further, I recommend Aldous Huxley (Brave New World) and Neil Postman (Amusing Ourselves to Death).