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Another fascinating piece, Robyn! I must say, this doesn't surprise me at all. I think it's why my husband and I felt so intuitively against the COVID lockdowns in 2020, it seemed obviously they would cause significant negative effects. I can also remember about five or six years ago, during a meeting with colleagues discussing the supposed benefits of 'social media'. My colleague (and friend) was praising one of the larger social media platforms as being a great advance in maintaining social contact. While I don't deny there may be some benefits, I quickly disagreed and put forward the opinion that it often has the extreme opposite effect. It's interesting, but not altogether surprising to be vindicated by the evidence you have cited. :)

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"Facebook/Instagram/Snapchat/Tik Tok ‘friends’ in the world don’t substitute for having real-life friends".

Spot on, even if those friends are life-long buddies from uni days and who are still legitimate friends despite all having been sadly lost to the Covid Cult (I've been trying to plant seeds of doubt in their minds, without great success, which is where the Substack community of sane, sensible, intellectually-open screen-contacts comes into its own).

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