There is - social media, and before that, forums and mailing lists. I've made friends through shared experiences and often these were based around online commu

There is - social media, and before that, forums and mailing lists. I've made friends through shared experiences and often these were based around online communities. For many years I raced mountain bikes, putting a face to a forum username up and down the country every weekend. I've experienced wild nights partying with strangers from Reddit; hosted people around the world via Couchsurfing (and still remain in frequent contact with many); even made friends through mentoring at a coding group.