I'm inclined to agree for the most part, but it's important to remember that imposing your own experience on others ("astounded", "never the same as real world

I'm inclined to agree for the most part, but it's important to remember that imposing your own experience on others ("astounded", "never the same as real world relationships", "hardly seems") is not just presumptuous and somewhat myopic, but also real shitty to hear for people who feel like they're not 'doing it right' just because they're different. There's a long history of people choosing to live solitary lives, and as far as I can tell there's no good reason to assume that they made the wrong choice. Sure, most people might need real social contact, but humans are a varied bunch. Let's accept or maybe even celebrate this, even while still keeping in mind that the more 'deviant' a behavior is, the higher the chance is that it's unhealthy. I'd never recommend a random person shut themselves in and replace real human contact with a digital version, because on average, it's probably not a good thing. But I try my best to also not impose what is 'normal' on them, because for all I know they're one of the odd ones out. (I am one of those odd ones, to an extent, and trying to conform to the 'healthy mean' has had some bad consequences.)