Enough of my adult life occurred during the time when significant chunks of population, often the overwhelming majority, were offline. I could very well compare

Enough of my adult life occurred during the time when significant chunks of population, often the overwhelming majority, were offline. I could very well compare. Somebody's reachability online, or at least via email or fidonet messages, radically improved the chances of continued contact and regular face-to-face meetings, whether it originated offline or online. The world not mediated by online connectivity was radically narrower. It required physical proximity (usually the same neighborhod, sometimes the same city), and exchanging phone numbers, an approximation of "online", was crucial for most longer-term relationships.