The lost social infrastructure of work

Personally, I think it's been a boon.

Yes, people are more lonely, but I'd counter with my experience over the last 5 years or so: people at work are simply NOT your friend. End of story. They never were, they never will be. You MIGHT find A friend at work. You might even be lucky enough to move into a company where you already have a friend or two. But the realisation has hit hard over the last few years that 99% of interactions within a work sphere are not genuine human connection. Most are simply data flow to support the business. Some parts are masking fluff that people put up to appear friendly. But with less time spent dazzled by people's social skills, their true intentions come through plainly in their work outputs and reciprocity - most especially the latter is telling: I've stopped being such an eager volunteer to help people (at least, most people) simply because I know I can't expect the same back - and my salary is paid based on _my_ outputs, not those of co-workers, so if they're not going to co-operate, there's little incentive for me to do so.

Company leaders also seem to be even more out of touch with their people as they are no longer forced to fraternise, but can instead remain atop their hills, barking orders and peering out their their foggy scopes at the terrain below. What a wonderful time to be alive - when the socially malleable have their substrate taken away to expose exactly how shallow they are.