I think this is a great point. Many great authors are considered great precisely because they enable their readers to have a meaningfully deep understanding of something that the readers haven't experienced.

And although it can be helpful to be aware of privileges (also a risk--might cause stereotyping), that people do, sometimes, manage to have deep meaningful conversations with each other online with no idea of each others' situation suggests that empathy and intelligence are capable of doing all the heavy lifting here.

Of course if we never exercise our empathy and intelligence in this way, we'll not be nearly so capable of bearing the load. And, alas, social media at least seems very geared towards minimizing the need to use those skills.