1. Present simple tense: Used throughout the answer (e.g., "Social media tends to encourage...", "People may have...") to state general truths and common situations.
2. Contrast structure: "People may have hundreds of online friends, but very few close, meaningful relationships." The use of "but" creates a clear contrast, which is a strong way to organize ideas.
3. Infinitive of purpose: "...which makes it hard to build genuine trust and intimacy." The infinitive "to build" explains the purpose or result, adding clarity.
4. Present participle phrase: "despite being constantly connected" uses the present participle "being" to show a contrast in the situation, adding complexity to the sentence structure.