I was just thinking the same.
The local, instant real life easily gets priority. Sometimes replies are procrastinated because one cannot decide what to reply. I got into the pen-pal hobby in my childhood, but I constantly procrastinated writing those letters and I constantly felt bad for procrastinating it.
Yeah. A smiley face would have done, but I guess too much thinking about stuff and insta-life got in the way.
Cheers.