The core issue IMO is resilience to rejection and the work required for friendships. Not everyone wants to be your friend, and it's easier to learn that from t

The core issue IMO is resilience to rejection and the work required for friendships. Not everyone wants to be your friend, and it's easier to learn that from the internet, not only because of hate, but even casual twitter dunks. When you do find someone you click with, it's work on both sides, and if both sides don't put in some work, it deteriorates. The easy way out is a lot of shallow interactions that require little work where no one really gets to know you. Rejection doesn't sting as much because you can just go change a username. Personally I think this article gets it wrong: people are already radicalized and seem lonely because they don't find any other radicals to hang out with. People who turn to angry politics just to fill the shallow social interaction checkbox are probably a small percentage of lonely people.