[scarecrowbob]

I met a quite a few folks online and then met them later in person.

I am tied to several communities where there is a whole lot of overlap between people online and in-person activities. For instance, I am involved with a long-running folk festival in Texas that has a large community, and many of those people are on social media. It's a fairly regular thing that I meet people at that festival who I'd previously only met in online spaces.

Similarly, I play music and I rock climb. I'm also involved in several forums for those activities. I've met up with quite a few folks over the years who I only knew from those forums, mostly because both those activities often require other people to participate.

Your point that "everyone is busy" is correct, I think. The big factor is what people are busy doing and finding the folks who are already busy doing things you would like to do.