Friendship Recession: Why Adults Struggle to Make FriendsArticle
Gen Z friendship advice from a 24-year-old living it: use your first job, move work friendships outside work, and what to do if you're remote or new in town.
Friendship Recession: Why Adults Struggle to Make FriendsArticle
Only a third to half of friendships are mutual, says a PLOS ONE study. Why one-sided friends are normal, and how to turn them into real ones.
Friendship Recession: Why Adults Struggle to Make FriendsArticle
A /friends page is a list of the people you know and like, at yourdomain.com/friends. Here's why I built one, why I made a directory of them, and how to make yours.
Friendship Recession: Why Adults Struggle to Make FriendsArticle
&subtitle=A%20mom%20sent%2030%20birthday%20party%20invites%20home%20in%20lunchboxes%20and%20almost%20nobody%20RSVP%27d.%20She%20wasn%27t%20snubbed.%20Here%27s%20why%20no%20one%20replies%2C%20and%20the%20simple%20fix%20that%20works.){kind=small}
Nobody RSVP'd to the party? You didn't get snubbed, you sent a blast. Here's why people don't reply, and how to actually get RSVPs.
Friendship Recession: Why Adults Struggle to Make FriendsArticle
17% of Americans now have no close friends. Here's what the friendship crisis looks like today, and the specific steps that help you fix it.
Friendship Recession: Why Adults Struggle to Make FriendsArticle
The latest friendship recession statistics, updated for 2026. How many adults have no close friends, plus the data on men, young people, loneliness, and health. All sourced.
Friendship Recession: Why Adults Struggle to Make FriendsArticle
A software developer tried coworking meetups, surprise phone calls, and drop-in visits to fight the friendship recession. Here's what worked.
Friendship Recession: Why Adults Struggle to Make FriendsArticle
%20About%20the%20Friendship%20Recession&subtitle=Harvard%27s%20Leadership%20%26%20Happiness%20Laboratory%20published%20a%20piece%20on%20the%20friendship%20recession.%20I%20think%20they%20get%20a%20lot%20right.%20But%20they%20also%20miss%20something%20big.){kind=small}
Harvard's Happiness Lab says we're in a friendship recession. Here's their data, what they get right, and the one fix they underrate.
Friendship Recession: Why Adults Struggle to Make FriendsArticle
&subtitle=I%20got%20a%20call%20from%20Linda%2C%20who%20runs%20a%2060-member%20women%27s%20club.%20She%20tried%20an%20icebreaker%20and%20it%20bombed.%20Most%20members%20didn%27t%20want%20new%20friends.%20Here%27s%20the%20plan%20we%20came%20up%20with.){kind=small}
4 in 10 adults over 45 are lonely. You can't force a room to want new friends. Smaller groups, a simple icebreaker, and a party within a party work better.
Friendship Recession: Why Adults Struggle to Make FriendsArticle
300 hours gets you to a close friendship. Phone calls beat texts. 9 practical thoughts on making friends after 30, grounded in research and real life.
Friendship Recession: Why Adults Struggle to Make FriendsArticle
Only 20% of employees have a best friend at work. Remote work quietly killed the coffee runs where real friendships formed. Here's what that costs.
Friendship Recession: Why Adults Struggle to Make FriendsArticle
15 people, 2 hours, on a weeknight. The friendship-gathering formula I use. The full playbook for hosting your way out of the friendship recession.
Friendship Recession: Why Adults Struggle to Make FriendsArticle
It takes 200 hours to build a close friendship. A three-day trip compresses months of casual hangouts into one weekend. Here's the research behind it.
Friendship Recession: Why Adults Struggle to Make FriendsArticle
7 hours a day on screens, 34 minutes with friends. That gap is why we're lonely. Here's what's actually working to close it.
Friendship Recession: Why Adults Struggle to Make FriendsArticle
Young adults are as lonely as seniors. Parents are lonelier than non-parents. The loneliness statistics in America don't match what most people expect.
Friendship Recession: Why Adults Struggle to Make FriendsArticle
1 in 5 single men have no close friends. 15% of men under 30 have none, up from 3% in 1990. The numbers behind the men’s friendship recession, and what’s working.
Friendship Recession: Why Adults Struggle to Make FriendsArticle
Between 1990 and 2021, the share of men with six or more close friends fell by half. Why male friendships collapsed, and the patterns that rebuild them.
Friendship Recession: Why Adults Struggle to Make FriendsArticle
Adults without a college degree are more than twice as likely to have no close friends (24% vs 10%). The data behind the friendship divide.
Friendship Recession: Why Adults Struggle to Make FriendsArticle
Joining one group cuts your annual mortality risk in half. 42 takeaways from the movie Join or Die and Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone on community decline.
Friendship Recession: Why Adults Struggle to Make FriendsArticle
52% of adults in Europe didn't make a new friend last year. Adults with zero close friends quadrupled since 1990. The friendship recession data and what to do about it.