I love this question, @Pflowers. I ask myself the same thing. I know I desire social connection, and yet it causes me such pain at times and leaves me feeling so alone.

I read a book called “Sapiens” by Noah Harari, which explained about the evolutionary advantage that Homo Sapiens had in terms of not only higher cognitive ability, but being capable of working cooperatively in significantly large social groups. If I remember correctly, he talks very specifically about our capability to interact in the form of social gossip. I think this is where social media platforms hit the gold mine, in terms of exploiting something that comes to us very naturally.

However, I think there’s a downside to this, in that if your mental health isn’t in a good place, it can leave you feeling very isolated.

Jeff.