You're looking for answers...

I was venting about my issues with Web 2.0 internet on a discord server earlier, and I thought of the lyric bit "the mall before the internet" from "coney island" by Taylor Swift.

I'm going to copy-paste it, because I thought it hit how I feel about it a lot.

like, okay, imagine you want to have a conversation with Someone, Anyone Who Gives a Shit

Which is more likely to produce that?

A: Standing in a foodcourt at a mall, when that isn't wildly risky, waiting for some meetcute with a stranger or running into one of your friends MAYBE, back in the days when anyone had IRL friends

B: sitting at home and waiting for one of your friends to call or visit you
tbh I think it's B even if statistically you COULD get luckier with A
and A is extremely depressing when it never works out even with people you know
or statistically approaching never
the problem being, of course, that twitter or whatever is The Mall before the Internet (thank you TSwift)
so all of your Friends (real or perceived) are there somewhere
but there's so much other noise it is really unlikely that they're gonna take the time to actively search for you
and the chances of them randomly seeing you through the mess are very low unless you're like a minor celebrity / wearing a peacock costume
so it's lose-lose
because everyone's at the mall and nobody is gonna call or visit
but continually putting yourself out there by getting dressed up to go to the mall is making your depression and sense of being invisible exponentially worse
because every time it doesn't work out, the more it hurts
and that was like... BEFORE the internet was my full-time life, my actual IRL life too
pretty much
back when people still did do the Mall
etc