alt Hacker NewsWorking remotely taught me a similar lesson as the author. The most important part that I think people get wrong in general is that online friends, or your good friends from uni or your childhood youth that you only see in person once or twice a year, can't replace an active local friends group - or community as he calls it. Cutting the daily interactions with other humans by no longer going to an office every day made me realize that - because you very quickly feel that something is missing.
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Having online friends can be great, but you’re right that it doesn’t replace in person friend groups.
One big problem with having mostly or only online friends is that you spend all day at work in front of a computer, then if you want to spend time with your online friends you spend more time in front of a computer. It can turn into all day every day screen time.
Why can't you have an online community?
littlecranky, put your reply back please; it was a good one.
Yeah, I've been WFH since the pandemic and my team is remote anyway, so even going to the office doesn't help (much).
I'm exploring in-office jobs for 2026.