networking

aka continuously connecting with people that are actually no longer there? I was thinking what would happen if suddenly internet would not exist anymore, and maybe also mobile phones.. and I realised that a huge part of my friends would really be offline and lost to me, as nowadays landline numbers or physical addresses are hardly exchanged anymore. I wonder how I would find them again.
on the other hand I wonder what makes people want to build these networks. one reason seems to me the unability to accept that when leaving a place for good you probably won't meet many of these people anymore - except for the few that really became good friends and/or have enough time and money to travel around. maybe it is too hard to face to say these final goodbyes. so we rather delve into the illusion of really being in touch with everyone.
I am not sure we really gain from this, because in some cases it is simply not honest. Also, I guess if one does not expect to see people again one often tends to be more sincere to them (which I generally think is lacking in everyday life) and in this way goodbye moments - if accepted as such - have even the potential to be the most precious in the sense of truth. and they allow to distance oneself from the people that are gone, to open the way to the ones that actually surround us.