As to your last point, I think metrics have heightened inequality in general. Friend/follower count, number of likes, retweets. It all lets you attach a number

As to your last point, I think metrics have heightened inequality in general. Friend/follower count, number of likes, retweets. It all lets you attach a number to popularity and likeability and makes for a quick and simple hierarchy. Loneliness is easy when you see socializing through the lens of who's good and who isn't (and just based on how popularity works, it's probable that a lot of your friends at least look more popular than you). Of course there have always been more or less popular or liked people, but I seem to recall it stinging less when it wasn't readily quantifiable.