> But then again, I can't shake the feeling that this is more about fun than really being close. I remember having close friends in high school and at the university. We spent many hours a day together for several years. Can't fake that, and I doubt anything like that will be born through Snapchat or similar tools.

I've got a whole bunch of friends whom I know mainly from online interaction. Surely that's a new class of friendship, which is useful?