That is true. I would love to have intellectual friends who like the arts, like pottery, writing, and music. I imagine those hobbies to be very affordable.
> cultural preference to isolate oneself
In retrospect, we, as a society, developed this notion of private property. Consumerism and mass media did this to us. But historically, we did not own much. Someone would hunt and gather, and the elders would stay and look out for the children. Imagine you're retired, old, frail, yet surrounded by children who are willing to help you.
"Private property"* in the sense you're using it here likely already existed by the the time of hunter gatherers. In some senses it even exists in many animals. The more common term for it is personal property: "this is my house, you can't live here; those are my scraps, you can't have them". Many animals also have their own nests, that they will defend from others; or even their own territory where only they hunt, and which they will fight others trying to encroach on.
This is the type of property that is the most natural actually, and I can't really see what it has to do with isolation. Even an idealized communist society (think Ursula LeGuinn, not Stalin) would still have this type of property, and consumerism (accumulating doodads you use every day) would still be a possible risk.
* in these types of discussions, when discussing the origins of such basic concepts, private property is often understood to refer to ownership of goods you are not directly using on a day-to-day basis. If you live in a house, that's personal property. If you own a house someone else lives in, that's private property. And this is indeed a much newer idea in human society (though still much, much older than media).
consumerism and mass media did not create private property. Scribes didn't write about it that anybody read, and the first printing press was already private property.
> cultural preference to isolate oneself
In retrospect, we, as a society, developed this notion of private property. Consumerism and mass media did this to us. But historically, we did not own much. Someone would hunt and gather, and the elders would stay and look out for the children. Imagine you're retired, old, frail, yet surrounded by children who are willing to help you.