Street Pass was one of my favorite features for the 3DS. It was also the best excuse to carry it around in my bag on standby mode along with the step counter/pedometer back when I was going through the motions of collecting coins.
The main problem with Street Pass is that the only thing you share is a Mii and access to whatever puzzle pieces they have unlocked. I know it's a security thing since a significant percentage of users are children, but it sort of defeats the purpose of having a social app when you have no way of knowing who you just shared your tiny bit of information with and no way of sending a message without coming into contact with them twice. But, it's not really a communication tool so no big deal.
Near, on the other hand almost borders on invasive if you opt to share everything. Whether that's good or bad depends on your level of paranoia or obsession with privacy (those rating high on either should probably disable Near). But between location, proximity, online ID and detailed gaming habits, that's a lot of information.
Of course this makes it easier than ever to find new people to play and communicate with as well as making it easier to communicate with existing PSN friends just by merit of always having a touch screen keyboard available for messaging on top of having chat available. Throw in Facebook and Twitter apps and you have a device that does everything but make phone calls until the Skype app goes online.
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