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The Friendship Dip - by Anne Helen Petersen - Culture Study

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You can define “close” however seems appropriate to you. For example: I have close friends who live near me and close friends who don’t. A close friend can be someone you’ve never actually met in person but talk to constantly…or someone you might not talk to every day or every week but nonetheless understand your relationship to them as “close.” Now that you have an approximate number, think about how that number has changed as you’ve aged. How many close friends did you have in high school? In your 20s? In your 30s or 40s? I always thought that as you moved through life you’d just keep accumulating friends, layering new relationships onto existing ones. But looking at new data from the Pew Research Center on the state of friendship in the U.S., I’m reminded of my own surprise when I woke up in my mid-30s and wondered: do I still have friends? Here’s what Pew found. A whopping 38% of Americans say they have five or more close friends. 55% say they have between one and four close friend

Essays The Friendship Dip The loneliest decades are not what you think they are Nov 05, 2023 1,162 287 130 Share Ask yourself: apart from family, how many close friends do you have? You can define “close” however seems appropriate to you. For example: I have close friends who live near me and close friends who don’t. A close friend can be someone you’ve never actually met in person but talk to constantly…or someone you might not talk to every day or every week but nonetheless understand your relationship to them as “close.” Now that you have an approximate number, think about how that number h

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