This is a linkpost for http://particularvirtue.blogspot.com/2017/05/how-to-build-community-full-of-lonely.html
If being social means having small talk than it doesn't help with your hard problems but various forms of social interaction do help.
In many fields networking is essential to success. Many people in this community might be more successful if they had better social skills and that requires practice.
Distinctly social strikes me as reading a newspaper.
In many fields networking is essential to success.
These statements do not disagree with each other. If it is necessary to be social, be social. If I worked in a job where knowing what paper-reader attitude is, then I would read the paper. But I wouldn't read the weekend paper for fun.
I would not be encouraging social more than it is necessary. Unless you have a strategy surrounding trying to be in the right place at the right time for serendipitous opportunity.