Ask HN: What Replaced “Pen Pals?”

Back in the early 90s, I was first introduced to the idea of international e-mail penpals. It blew my mind. I had a friend from Australia I could write to, AND a friend from Ukraine. I was just in the freaking SEVENTH GRADE. It was awesome.

Fast forward to today. We can connect with people from all over the world in seconds. But... I haven't had as many deeper connections with people from other countries as I did back then.

Why is this? What happened? What replaced the idea of "pen pals" from that era?