HN user
Agree, coming from a 3rd country to US what I have personally perceived a lot is the generational loop at the later stage..."Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times." — G. Michael Hopf
Like anything some is good too much is bad, a gradient work for a complex society, a brutal difference like kings and dark ages poor eventually bring collapse
How is it different from a person believing whatever they read on the Internet?
Maybe cognitive dissonance it seems to me that people tend to trust more when they are being told(chat bot summarizing for them) than when they need an process way more information and summarize themselves (googling).
Perhaps is similar to 90's internet when anything out there was "truth" but less information also was easier to process.
You must go outside your traditional groups(family, friends, colleges) find several activities that you like or you had always wanted to do, meetups etc, stay on them for a while, that's how friendship happens, the key is a new group of something you enjoy, keep doing it, guaranteed will work