Perhaps my analogy with studing at the party was not perfect. The point was that your friends are here and now, not that someone is making noises and having fun.

You're right from the structural/organizational perspective. If you visit astronomy forums and not 4chan, houses analogy holds true.

But my analogy comes from how my brain perceives reachability of other humans (especially one I care about). When I'm "in house", it takes a lot of effort to meet someone and have the human connection (i.e. you should agree on time and date, arrange the meeting, exit the house, reach the meeting point). But internet makes this almost instant – just open messenger/social media and here they're are, virtually always online.