I know this is a meme but I think people look down on internet discussions too much. Obviously it depends on “arguing” type but reddit/lemmy is at least somewhat structured and depending on the community can be good faith and productive. For people who don’t live in a big city finding a community to exchange more niche thoughts and opinions (e.g. operating systems, design decisions etc) is incredibly difficult.

I have a related anecdote of being an assistant to older people in IT classes and intellectual starvation is a very big deal. Once people settle down, move further out of the city it’s hard to find discussions on their interests without internet comments. The real issue is Facebook groups which are often the only forums available to these people, and they are not fit for scratching this itch for intellectual stimulation as it’s design precisely for the opposite of that. This might sound silly, but old people need Lemmy.