I think another thing could be how easy it is to only interact with people who share your interests when you were raised doing it mainly online. Older coworkers

I think another thing could be how easy it is to only interact with people who share your interests when you were raised doing it mainly online. Older coworkers have said that before the Internet became widely used, being able to find common ground with your neighbors and coworkers was the only way to have any social interaction. Now though, it's so easy to find an online group with common interests that it can seem like a chore to talk to someone who doesn't share a lot of things in common. Even when people do go out in social situations, it's not uncommon to see a lot of people sitting on their phones. Like you said, air conditioning made it so you didn't have to interact as much if you didn't want to. Now with the Internet, you can sit in the AC all day and think you are being social because you're talking to likeminded people online, even though you likely aren't making meaningful connections. As an aside, my wife is from the US South, and what you read is spot on. Even if it wasn't sitting on the porch, it might be going to a local creek or lake to cool off. Even now with AC, it's not uncommon for friends or family to be driving by the house and decide to stop by and talk just because it's part of the culture now.