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Nope, chat only works. I am a person who lives like that (social contacts in messengers or IRL, no Facebook, no insta, no TikTok account).
Me and my friend group are all over the world now, because we moved out of Russia (mostly because of war, but there are other cases). So we’re all pros at staying in contact to not go crazy because everyone started their social life over. And I’m a part of several small-ish (20-80 people total, 5-30 active) group chat communities. In all of them, there are ongoing discussions, traditions like “friday selfie”, and inside jokes/themes.
In addition to that, I’m a part of some local group chat communities where I’m living now. It’s mostly in Telegram, but there’s also a big (400 people) Discord nerd/expat server), and a boardgame meetings group in WA.
It absolutely can work. More than that, local online groups activities result in some RL meetings - going to bars, barbecuing, book clubs and such. When I was moving I was afraid we’ll have no friends, but now it’s too much, we have to make choices where to go (or if we’re going at all)

The conditions were created by a Brazilian building contractor. It was not the factory environment, but the construction project environment.