The original "inventors" of social liberalism (and arguably its most vocal supporters today) did have replacements: strong friend circles where they were popular, political parties with strong ideological roots, cultural clubs, societies of shared interests, etc. They fought for auto-determination precisely because they wanted equal dignity for their preferred replacements, in the face of institutional snobism. At the end of the day, even anarchists have clubs.
The real problem is that very little is done in education, in most countries, to let kids explore different social groups and perspectives in order to choose the one they fit best; and even less is done for lonely adults. They are usually grouped per age and along fairly omogeneous class lines, which is a complete crapshoot.