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.
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.