9 Reasons In-Person Friendships Will Always Matter

Meeting online, even through social media, only scratches the surface of the friendship and connection that is possible in real-life.

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Friendship, at least in America, is in retreat. The Survey Center on American Life asked people how many close friends they have, not counting their relatives. The results revealed a significant move from having many friends to having few or no friends. In 1990, 7 percent of people reported having zero to 1 friend—a number that rose to 19 percent by 2021.

Much research, including a 2018 article in the Journal of Population Sciences, demonstrates a strong, positive association between the quality and quantity of our friendships and our satisfaction with our lives. So, why are we neglecting this area?

Virtual Versus Real-Life Friendship

The first and most obvious area of neglect is screen time. A 2022 study indicated that people between the ages of 8 to 25 are averaging somewhere in the ballpark of eight hours a day in front of screens. Clearly, this must be displacing other activities in their lives, including, and especially, spending face-to-face time with their peers.