@turnonthegrind - In your OP:
Am I missing out on something. If that's where the action is I might as well sign up. If it's like skype I will consider it.
It sounded (to me) like you were asking a practical, results-oriented question about the usefulness of a particular communications app (among many), but now you say:
I'm old fashioned and old school I still believe in making friends in a record store and ...
And it sounds like it is, in some strange (to me) way, an issue of almost philosophical principle to you, perhaps even a moral or ethical matter in which your personal normative values play an important role.
In the former sense, I'd say that you should give LINE a *real* and honest trial. There is plenty of testimony in this thread and elsewhere that it is a useful and indeed powerful tool in social life in Japan. It is precisely where much of the action resides in Tokyo, especially among the under 40 crowd.
In the latter case, I'd say to give it a pass by all means. While useful, it is not important enough (imo) to justify compromising your deep personal values or views on how to live or socialize "properly".
It is as though you first asked us whether or not, say, Google Map is a handy way to find your way around Tokyo, but then when told that it is, you replied that you think it somehow more virtuous to rely on old-school paper maps and asking for directions at the koban.
Whatever...
-Ww