As much as I hate fence-sitting lines like this....this truly is one of those circumstances where "both sides make good points".
One the one hand there's the (digitally) hyper-connected aspect that OP talks about.
On the other hand, in real life, young people are atomized, isolated, and introverted. Most of my coworkers are zoomers and it's very obvious from the way they talk they are all terminally online. For most of my coworkers, especially male coworkers, their lives seem to be work, class, gym, and internet. That's it. They also see nothing wrong with this. I'm sure the ones who are incel want a gf added into the mix, but aside from that they see nothing wrong with spending their lives on twitter/reddit/tiktok, having all their friends be people they've never met in real life on Discord, and only going outside when they absolutely have to (work, gym, class). Zoomers are so hyper-introverted and unsocial that many even avoid talking on the phone, and strongly prefer communicating entirely through text.
That said, I realize that my way of thinking is antiquated. For zoomers, the internet is just a part of "real life", and the biggest part at that. They don't make a distinction. And that's probably because there's no distinction to be made. Any online lingo or discourse instantly seeps into real life. My zoomer coworkers all talk like tik-tokers, ironybros, and/or redditors.
I also realize that this is just how things are now, introverts control the zeitgeist. We're never going back to talking on the phone more than texting, hanging out at the mall, and couples meeting through real life friends. Those are all just relics of a time gone by.
