American men are stuck in what’s been dubbed a friendship recession, with 20 percent of single men now saying they don’t have any close friends. More than half of all men report feeling unsatisfied with the size of their friend groups. Geoff Bennett traveled to Phoenix to take a closer look at the implications of male loneliness and how some men are confronting it.
I’m worried about what will happen after I get out of college. I have very few friends even here but I’m quite close with them. I worry when our careers start we will become very separate over time.
You still get to hang out with those friends after college, but it will feel increasingly hollow and you won’t get as much out of it. Occasionally, you’ll hang with friends for a wedding or a long weekend or something and you can get up to hijinks and get that real side-splitting style laughter going, which is really refreshing and takes you back to the old days. Then everyone will be like, “we should do this more often, let’s get together”, but for whatever reason, you probably won’t.
I’m worried about what will happen after I get out of college. I have very few friends even here but I’m quite close with them. I worry when our careers start we will become very separate over time.
You still get to hang out with those friends after college, but it will feel increasingly hollow and you won’t get as much out of it. Occasionally, you’ll hang with friends for a wedding or a long weekend or something and you can get up to hijinks and get that real side-splitting style laughter going, which is really refreshing and takes you back to the old days. Then everyone will be like, “we should do this more often, let’s get together”, but for whatever reason, you probably won’t.