Consider the “mere-exposure effect”: You like people simply because you have seen them before. That’s why office romances happen. That’s why you eventually befriend the weird guy in the building lobby.
We treat the “people you don’t know” (followers, lurkers) with the emotional labor of “people you know” (curating a perfect life, performing happiness). Simultaneously, we treat the “people you know” with the dismissive brevity of “people you don’t” (sending a meme instead of making a phone call). people you know to people you don't
The Unseen Constellation: Navigating the Spectrum from Intimates to Strangers performing happiness). Simultaneously