Just seems unlikely that we assume, because the universe is so big, there are advanced civilizations out there - but not ones that can find us, not ones that we can find, for various reasons discussed in these threads.
If our understanding of the universe is true to a certain point, civilizations are far more likely to be essentially alone and "special" than many might think.
Is there a similar abundance of planets with life in the universe?
The deal is, if we were one among hundreds or thousands, what are the odds nobody at all in any of those other civilizations would want to interact with us? Because we've received zero interactions. Dead silence.
Why is that? Well, it takes a lot of energy to broadcast, so they'd have to beam us a message. We're not really looking for beams. Don't even know what they'd look like? Laser pulses? Soliton trains? Neutrino bursts?
And if that is accurate, then essentially we ARE alone in the universe. There simply isn't anything close enough - we'll be enveloped by the sun or some other catastrophe before that happens.
We may feel special, but that's only because we haven't found anything else. If they found hundreds (or more) of worlds like ours, then maybe we're just another dot on their galaxy map.
Plus if the media is anything to go by, all we do is shoot each other. Might not be too exciting for a civilization who can travel amongst the stars.