Well, we've constructed an app based world where you don;t need to go out, or pick up the phone, to talk to your friends. Food, shopping, entertainment is all centred around the individual. There's an app for that.
It's constructed, accidentally, an age of self-centred loneliness. Towns, bars, shops are increasingly struggling. Yes, going out is expensive, and it's cheaper to buy a few bottles of beer and Netflix, but few of our social networks (those used to be real not online) are based in the local pub or weekly club any more. Now they're all around the personalised, I'm the centre of the world, app.
Don't agree about the depression - When my parents went through the depression, everyone was in everyone else's pockets. They'd spend time in each other's houses for ad hoc childcare, meals, help from debt, hiding from the rent man etc. A lot of their stories were of a world I don't recognise at all. Everyone knew everyone in the street and did things together; it was almost disturbingly social. Maybe that was because they were in a city, I don't know.
I suspect the right balance is somewhere in between.
