Here are two key findings, from May polling by the Survey Center on American Life, a project of the American Enterprise Institute:  AEI senior fellow

America's "Friendscape" crisis

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2021-07-25 16:30:07

Here are two key findings, from May polling by the Survey Center on American Life, a project of the American Enterprise Institute:

AEI senior fellow Daniel Cox, who conducted the research, told me that as he's discussed the findings on podcasts and online, people get it: "Everyone has their own anecdote."

I got a different lens from Kate Murphy, a Texan who is author of "You’re Not Listening," and wrote for the N.Y. Times (subscription), "The Pandemic Shrank Our Social Circles. Let’s Keep It That Way."

I love this: "You can be friendly with a lot of people but you can only have a few good friends," Murphy added. "An occasional lunch, back slap at a cocktail party or exchange of texts is sociability but not social support."

 [W]hen your social life becomes a mad dash between events driven by FOMO,  you don’t have the time or emotional energy to develop those truly meaningful relationships and attachments that are essential to human health and happiness. And, of course, engaging with people digitally is a poor facsimile. The pandemic showed us that for sure.

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