I suspect we can only handle a finite (and quite small) number of meaningful connections. The modern age has grown the number of available options from just those people within walking distance, i.e. at most a few thousand, to everyone within range of your car and your internet connection. That's billions of people, far too great a number for us to deal with.

Yet here we are, talking through the magic of the internet, but we're destined to remain strangers to one another. So although the discussion may be interesting, in the end we are not actually making new friends.