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The Atlantic

The Atlantic

Is America suffering from an 'epidemic of loneliness'? Here's what you need to know

The Atlantic
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80% Informative

Survey: Americans have about four or five friends, but few say they have no friends.

Bob Greene : Americans struggle to figure out how to communicate and connect and make time for friendship.

Greene: We spend less than three hours a week with friends, compared with six hours a decade ago .

He says the difficulty arises, in part, from a shortage of free time and the effort it takes to schedule a gathering.

Greene says college-educated Americans more likely to host friends at least once a month.

Only a quarter of Americans say most or all of their close friends live in their neighborhood.

Maintaining friendships in this atomized new world might require ratcheting down expectations.

For parents with young kids, a weekly brunch with friends may well be impossible.

Instead, Goldfarb suggests getting closer to your friends by taking an interest in things they care about.