Yes it is faster, because you get extra medals depending on who did better too. But the number of fish or bugs or whatever you have to catch doubles too, but it's still more worth doing with friends. You can compensate for each other's weaknesses, boost morale, and just make it less tedious.
A lot of the ones that seem impossible, like the dreams, or medals etc....if you do a few a day, it'll add up. For example, if you have 10-15 dreams every day, you'll be surprised how quickly you can get there. You only have to go in and out, unless a town looks interesting and you want to explore it.
I felt the same, until I found a local streetpass group that meets once a month. That's what helped me get my silver badge. It's actually fun to go there sometimes. Maybe there's something like that in your area, or you could set one up. Also there's "homepassing" but I'm not smart enough to figure that out. I'm close enough to Disneyland that I seriously considered going there and hanging out by the gate. XD If it was a year ago, when more people were playing, I might seriously have done that for a couple of hours. But not now. It really bugs me though not to be able to get that gold SP badge. :c
