How to maintain intimacy/friendships in our impersonal modern world.

For June 3rd, I thought we would postpone our look at the global underground economy (which requires a lot of research on my part, BTW) in favor of a more personal topic, of which we've had few lately.

Romantic intimacy & deep friendship. Finding either, doing it right, and holding onto it has been hard enough in the past, at least for many people. What will the future bring? Maybe this is an old guy talking, but our social milieu seems to be growing less and less...personal and face-to-face. Also, more mass market and niche market and even on social media, more performative and less real, if you will.

Is this new world less amenable to forming intimacies and real friendships? Seems like a good question for CivCon. We have nibbled on in past meetings. Maybe the root cause is social media; or declining social trust, both in institutions and in each other; or in identity politics and polarization, or just all the recent culture shocks like COVID and Trumpism. Or other things.

Optional background readings -

• This topic is more personal, but there are tons of web articles on how to find/maintain healthy relationships in this depersonalized age. Can't vouch, but these ones seem decent.
• How to have meaningful relationships in an impersonal era.
• Why choosing intimacy is the best way to survive a lonely world.
• We have always been lonely; technology just makes us notice it more.
• CivCon mtgs: 2020 Loneliness & isolation in a wired world. 2018: Romance/dating in the social media age.
• NEW Sunday night: Isolation breeds social anomie and thus is a key driver of political extremism!