Friendship Recession

What is it?

It is

” The decline of close friendships among adults in the 21st century“

It means that more people are spending time alone, have fewer friends, and devote less time to their friendships. According to a 2021 survey done by the Survey Center on American Life, the number of men with at least six close friends decreased from 55% to 27% since 1990, and the number of men with zero close friends increased from 3% to 15%. The friendship recession affects women as well, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has limited physical contact and social activities.

Its negative impacts

Friendship recession has same bad effects on health as excessive smoking and drinking alcohol. But societies forced males to focus on career and this declines social life.

Factors that contributed to it

• It can be due to increased use of technology and entertainment sources at home that we have a lack of meaningful connection with other people and friends
• Increased and focused parental care
• Work centeric culture
• Jobs mobility
• Sometimes we make friends and sometimes we break friendships. Most best friend span is 10 years in America
• In a rigid social structure in which people are stuck with other people, when those people don’t do their part , you end up not doing your part either and the whole group collapses. If you have capacity to tell other person that I don’t want to be your friend anymore because you’re taking advantage of me, that capacity actually supports cooperation in group but you don’t want too much of that social fluidity because then you’ll not have friends. If you make new friends often, why would you invest in that person, especially time. You want the capacity to leave your friends precisely so that they will become better friends. For example divorce should be difficult but not impossible so that if If one spouse is bad other one is not stuck for life and also not too easy so you won’t care about your spouse either because they’re gonna change soon.

Ways to combat

Dedicate time to friends. We think we are a burden to our neighbors and friends, this is our perceived burdensomeness, the idea that people are better without me.

Benjamin Franklin said that what things you could do when you first move into a new neighborhood to ask your neighbor for a very small favor. The reason for that is that it gets a very reciprocal trade. People like to be of service and if you ask someone of a very, in this way you show them that they are positive and friendly in a very reciprocal way.

Most of content was from videos from some respected persons including Jordan Peterson.