what kind of on the other hand usage is it?

It is meaningless at present. There appears to be a typographical omission of a phrase such as the one below.

When we are immersed in the comfort of electronic media, we seem to be cut off from others. On the other hand, we are able to foster new types of shared experience, resulting in ‘greater personal involvement with those who would otherwise be strangers

The sentence that precedes this sentence in the book is the answer to your question.

Quite likely. The omission could be one of selective quotation. If so, it underscores the fallacy that "grammar" must be confined to the unit called " a sentence".

Insofar as, McLuhan argues, the medium is our identity, when we turn off the Internet we lose the role it assigns to us as a netizen, and we are forced to take responsibility for our identity.

When we are immersed in the comfort of electronic media, on the
other hand, we are able to foster new types of shared experience, resulting
in "greater personal involvement with those who would otherwise be
strangers" (Meyrowitz,1995:58).

Put "On the other hand" at the beginning of the sentence (instead of in the middle) and the connection will be clearer.

The phrase "on the other hand", meaning "conversely" or "in contrast" or "however" etc, is part of a larger construction. It needs to be preceded by "on one hand" or "on the one hand" e.g.

On the one hand I love Mary but on the other hand I don't like her mother.

The construction is used when the two things being compared have some sort of difficult problem of mutually exclusive conflict with each other, some kind of paradox or competing interest that is difficult or impossible to resolve.

I thank you all especially Knaivete