As our online lives grow, our real-world connections shrink. I'm a teacher, a fairly young and tech-savvy one. I say that so you know I'm not coming at this like an old and out-of-touch boomer who hates technology.

Our kids do not know how to communicate as well as they used to. They don't hang out in person, they don't roam around town and make friends with the local kids in their neighborhood, they don't play outside beyond highly-structured and competitive sports, and many have ZERO real-world friends.

I spend a lot of time online. Online friendships are great and can be super important for many people. That said, I don't think it's super healthy to only have online friends. I know many kids who literally do not interact with a single real-world friend ever. It's all discord and video games.

I myself find that I only have one real-world friend when it comes down to it. Sure, I love my coworkers to pieces and I have my wife's friends to some degree. But me alone? One friend. And yes, I do somewhat blame the degradation of real-world communities for that. Gone are the days when children were raised by "the whole village."