> ask yourself how many of your “work friends” from a job you’ve had more than a year ago do you still interact with?

I still interact a lot with people I was on a team with >1 yr ago – the ones I met before we went remote. Can't say the same about the ones I was never in the office with, even though they seem like equally good people.

> but apart from “work” we have different interests, values, and experiences. That doesn’t lead to community, it leads to having acquaintances.

It has not been my experience that "community" arises particularly from this kind of homogeneity.

I'm also kind of curious what you mean by "parasocial" outside of the context of media.