Interaction in the Pokemon universe

Remember when you were younger and going to a school where you just KNEW there were loads of people playing the new Pokemon games and you could exchange pokemon and tips with them and even if you didn't have an older sibling who was into pokemon so that you had both renditions of the current pokemon gen, you could still have fun with the game and with people.
Those times are kind of over for me unless I do find out that everyone in University plays the new Pokemon but then how would I find that out without revealing that I bought the newest pokemon game.
I know there's all the internet stuff in the new Pokemon games but I never had that reliable a connection and I have absolutely NO clue how the whole streetpass thing works,could someone explain that to me?

Tl;dr: I played a lot of pokemon today and it's fun.

-adios,D.