I think it's a lot like surplus manufacturing capacity or six sigma in an economic context. In general, surplus manufacturing capacity is bad because it means you're not utilizing your capital to the fullest extent possible. It means you built more factories than you need, so some are sitting idle. And six sigma is good because it reduces variability in quality, which lets you streamline your processes so that there's no wasted effort.
Except then you get World War 2, when suddenly everyone was dropping bombs on each other, and countries needed that surplus manufacturing capacity, and the winner ended up being the one that had the most. Or when 3M introduced six sigma, they found a dramatic decrease in creativity and innovation, because those require waste and variability.
Friendship is wasted when times are good, because you don't need your friends, and they take up time and attention that could be devoted to more productive pursuits. But if you suffer a bad breakup or suddenly get sick, it's awful nice to have somebody who's got your back unconditionally. There's a trade-off between efficiency and reliability, and someone who is always perfectly efficient is usually pretty unreliable when unexpected events occur.
One way I think of it is that friendship of yore was designed for a harsher, crueler world, with serious limits on how much one could broadcast.
Today the opportunities to connect are plentiful; going online can feel like you're at a 24/7 party with a constant stream of new guests and new ideas, so long as you put in the _effort_ to set it up that way. If the only thing you do is add a few acquaintances to Facebook, the article is correct - you won't get any value out of it. But a strategy that has more specific goals in mind than "be friends" is only empowered by the social tools.
One strategy I've used is what I call a social honeypot.
Ie create a project (in my case a magazine) which attracts a passive "income" of new acquaintances who are automatically selected (because they bothered to contact you) for compatibility.
Except then you get World War 2, when suddenly everyone was dropping bombs on each other, and countries needed that surplus manufacturing capacity, and the winner ended up being the one that had the most. Or when 3M introduced six sigma, they found a dramatic decrease in creativity and innovation, because those require waste and variability.
Friendship is wasted when times are good, because you don't need your friends, and they take up time and attention that could be devoted to more productive pursuits. But if you suffer a bad breakup or suddenly get sick, it's awful nice to have somebody who's got your back unconditionally. There's a trade-off between efficiency and reliability, and someone who is always perfectly efficient is usually pretty unreliable when unexpected events occur.