There is a big push to keep everyone home. Generation Z has been given the convenience of delivery, which has removed the last reason to go outside even when everything else, like friends and family, has been removed. You no longer have to go to the store to get food.
Physical contact itself has received a substitute, even if subpar, through platforms like VRChat. I have friends who interact with their bestest friends mostly through it, telling me quite convincingly that it creates the closeness they crave.
VRChat, like many online platforms, is a sandbox that facilitates experimentation with identity. How many truly felt identities have people discovered that can only realistically exist online? Were the Internet be removed from their lives, how would they go through this loss?
It is evident that identity is fluid. However, if your identity can only be realistically assumed through immaterial means that can be taken away from you, then you will feel a hole in yourself if they become unavailable. Your identity becomes dependent on something other than you.
This is not a problem for those whose identities rely only on the body or the mind, which can exist independently and can even have a material presentation.
The push to keep everyone home and stuck in the immaterial to experience socialization will contribute to the creation of identities that cannot exist independently of technological means like the Internet. Those with these identities must be aware of the risks!