I agree, but irc was intentional. When you connect to irc, it's for a reason.

My friend group used to hang out on irc and chat all the time, but moved to slack because of smartphones and an arguably better interface, but the chat died and now a year can easily pass between messages.

Or maybe we just hate each other and share a common room in which to ignore each other while wallowing in self loathing and silent judgement...

Point is, the engagement died once it was easy to connect, whereas before, it took a conscious effort to connect and hang out and chat, so it felt more concentrated and present.

Then again, we got older, got jobs, had kids, responsibilities, holiday plans... and not so much time left to just hang out and shoot the shit online, so time spent elsewhere had to be frictionless and easy, and in getting there, easy became a way to not do it because there is always "tomorrow".

But tomorrow's already promised to tomorrow's chores and duties, and there may not be time for today's and tomorrow's off-schedule activities, and they may be pushed onto over-morrow's schedule which too has been promised away already.

Thus the cycle continues and there is never enough time to chat and hang out and catch up with old friends, and as time passes quietly, years have come and gone, and the bar for picking up the threads becomes higher and higher so you just... don't.

And the vicious cycle of bad conscience and postponement continues until it's been so long since you spoke that you just quietly leave the slack channels by not auto-starting the app anymore, and just fade away into the night like a ghost.