The way social media (connections by people you know) destroyed most forums (connections by shared interests) is going to be felt for years.

Forums (and BBS before them) were so effective in connecting people over shared interests that they created so many shared contexts between those people that anecdotally for those who lived on forums... loneliness is far less of a societal issue than those who didn't experience forums.

I would've loved to have seen an alternative timeline where social media wasn't as it is, but was always around interests.