For me, as an artist, social media / networking & 'connecting' are ways of mixing business with pleasure - to be treated with caution at all times.
There are all kinds of people out there (not everyone is true to their profile) and I advise anyone to be sure you know what you're doing when you let strangers into your life because of loneliness. I know of women artists who have relationships with their buyers (the rich or good-looking ones) and go as far as to advertise the possibility of it in order to tempt you to buy their artwork. Personally, I avoid following too avidly the person who draws you into their lives through social media in order to sell a product or who have so many followers that they can afford to cherry-pick who they become friends with according to who they perceive has the most to offer. From experience, it rarely is the lonely person they choose to befriend as they are so popular that they are rarely lonely themselves.
As far as making new, real-life friends on it I failed miserably at it, so it was rather a waste of time. I use it only for business now - to let strangers look at my artwork and what I'm up to in the studio (via: Twitter / Facebook & Flickr). Occasionally, I might strike up an aquaintanceship with someone who 'follows' me on Twitter - if aquaintanceship can be defined as an occasional tweet related to something I post and vice versa. Perhaps in the future it might lead to some useful business contacts and possible genuine friendships, who knows?
