superficial interaction

i've been happily cruising along on facebook for sometime now, when it was brought home to me that the interactions there, however well intentioned, are really quite superficial. i was initially very excited by fb, because i found so many of my university friends there, most of whom i'd lost touch with through email. yes, it was--is--wonderful to see their virtual footsteps, see pictures of them and their new families, read their status updates. the problem arises i guess, when you expect all this to mean something, to fill the void left by the absence of these people. in fact, it just makes the void that much more noticeable. i find it so frustrating that all my friends are scattered around the world, that it is so hard for me to make new friends here, that these new friendships never seem to match the quality of those in the past.

and yet, were those friendships really that great, or do they just seem so now?