After graduating highschool, I lost connection with all my old friends. I put in a reasonable amount of energy maintaining contact. However, I felt that this was not being reciprocated so I gradually gave up trying too.
After all, why should they or anyone waste energy maintaining a relationship over long distances? Most of us will probably never see each other again.
Isn't that weird?
Historically, the connections you made in childhood lasted for the rest of your life. Yet today, they do not outlast your teenage years.
The cause of this is a combination of modern capitalism (people moving around multiple times in their life for work, being unable to establish roots), modern parenting (the culture of evicting your son from the home as soon as he reaches 18), and to lesser extents: College and internet.
"Going to college" has, for decades, been effectively forced upon children by literally every authority figure they will ever encounter from their parents to their teachers. And being removed from the place you grew up for 4-6 years is certainly a factor in destroying the many, many great relationships that you built up over your teenage years. However, I would rank it lower than parenting and capitalism due to its ostensibly temporary state. If college were localized or a temporary place you went to and then returned to your home and your family, then it would not be as destructive.
Social media is similar.
I don't believe that this was int