Online or offline. News keeps reporting about loneliness and disconnection, but in my experience it’s just that it’s harder to interact with people in a civil way because they are so hostile, angry, and arrogantly convinced their viewpoints and experiences are the only legitimate ones.
Not to mention the lack of civility towards servers and other service workers. I can’t recall if I was just indifferent 10 years ago, but on a almost daily basis it blows my mind how openly rude many people are to servers and such, which seemed like a much more rare thing when I was younger.
Maybe just getting old and ready to enter my yelling at clouds phase, but feels like the younger generations are less and less open to the possibility of casual conversation. I can start a conversation with a 60 year old lady any day of the week anywhere about damn near anything.