Not having anyone to talk to for a few years in grade school doesn’t mean you wouldn’t have managed in a world without the internet. Its perhaps unfortunate that smartphones enabled you to be insular and never develop more socially (in regards to your original question)
Welp I hada bried time in elementary school to middle school like right before the smartphone era began (think like 2012-2016), there was nearly zero phones in school at that time, I can assure you I still had near zero friends and everyone I only considered to be an “acquaintance”. Everyone talked to each other, I was the loser making origami stuff and being a loser in the corner by myself with barely anyone to talk to. So yea I kinda hated my life during that time period. Perhaps seeing tv shows portray pre-internet era triggered these subconcious memories and cause those fears to resurge?
Stillwater@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Halosheep@lemm.ee 12 hours ago
Interesting you consider the “smartphone era” to begin 2012. I’d say more like 2009/2010. Around my first year of highschool most students had some form of smartphone.