In the US, a real problem is that our population is so distributed that even if you had people to hang out with in person at one point, it's pretty likely that none of them live within walking distance of you. So to meet up with friends or acquaintances, you have to drive (or use public transit, if you're lucky enough to live in a place where that's possible). Once you've driven somewhere to meet with someone, if you're going to go somewhere else you'll probably drive too, and then you'll drive home.
In my case I almost never had cause to walk for I guess what would be 'typical' reasons, despite not really growing up with a ton of technology or lots of 'virtual friends'. I just never had a reason to walk over to visit someone, so it was limited to walking to the grocery store or to the bus stop for college. Everyone I knew lived a 15+ minute drive away. Reaching college on public transit took over 3 hours, so I ended up getting a car pretty quick.
In someplace more dense like the UK, are people's friends all within walking distance?