To be fair, though sometimes communicating electronically seems "less than" face to face communication, there are many people who struggle with social anxiety or feel that their thoughts are best represented asynchronously who are actually better represented as a person on forums than in real life.
When you are an introvert and much of your self is in your head, forums are a real benefit in communicating authentically. Especially across age groups. When you read posts, you are not burdened by snap judgements, including those regarding age. Embarrassingly, I have to say that most of my IRL friends are near my age, and I appreciate the intellectual banter on here that happens across age groups with people I probably wouldn't have much interaction in real life, to my detriment.
Just a little love for forums...