We all talk about it, analyze it, try to conjure it up. We agree that we all yearn for it. But there does seem to be a real disconnect here. There are many reasons. Immediacy, for one.
Virtual friends seem to have it all over the real thing.
We don't have to worry about looks or breadth. We can respond when we feel like it, unlike those messy real-time relationships that always seem their most demanding at the most inconvenient times. We can edit for both style and content, thereby neatly pulling off the hat trick of seeming both wittier and more sympathetic than we truly are. These people had, and sometimes have, friendships. They had pals, business associates, buddies, people they saw at the water cooler, ate lunch with, worked out next to at the gym.