
Friendships Alleviate Loneliness
Meaningful social relationships are to loneliness what food is to hunger and water is to thirst. Loneliness, like hunger and thirst, is not eliminated or solved. It is temporally alleviated and must be continually addressed.
From The Guardian:
Loneliness is not the same as being alone. It is the response to an insufficiency of emotional closeness and connection.
Loneliness is not about numbers. It’s about the depth of the connection, the feeling that you are being seen and loved.
The cure for loneliness is intimacy, and the problem with intimacy is that it’s frightening. There’s a risk of being rejected or having to deal with conflict, and both these things can feel insurmountable, especially when a person has been lonely for a long time.
Loneliness alters your perception, magnifying any sense of social threat. What this means is that you tend to notice and remember difficult or awkward social encounters far more than those that run smoothly. Instances of perceived rudeness or rejection loom large, making the lonely person more withdrawn and less willing to reach out.
From The International Journal of Aging and Development:
Social relationships protect people against loneliness. Friendship qualities like intimacy and frequency of contact may vary throughout a person’s lifespan. Older people have fewer confident friends than younger people. However, older age groups report higher levels of satisfaction with their contact with friends. Research shows that the aspiration for contact with friends is more significant to loneliness than actual contact in all age groups. Dissatisfaction with contact with friends is strongly related to loneliness in all age groups.
Friendships come from people spending time together and sharing experiences.
From The Brintannica:
The formation phase of a friendship is the transition from strangers to acquaintances to friends. During this phase individuals engage in interactions to get to know each other and to forge the affective bond that characterizes a friendship.
Friends maintain their relationship through sharing interests, doing recreational or leisure activities together, and exchanging support and advice. The frequency of interactions between friends is one central determinant of the success of maintaining a friendship. Friendships are not stationary; interactions are required for maintaining a friendship. Convenience is perhaps the most important determinant of the frequency of interactions between friends.
From Healthline:
The time invested in a relationship determines the strength of the relationship. Friends must interact at least once a week for intimate relationships, at least once a month for best friend relationships, and at least once a year for just friends.
The Dunrovin Solution
Friendships need four elements to form: a place to meet, a safe social environment for meaningful conversations, and interesting activities to share while spending time together.
The DaysAtDunrovin platform not only provides all four essential elements, but it is intentionally designed to encourage conversations, find mutual interests, and facilitate online friendships organically forming.
Status of Friendships in America
Survey Center on American Life
May 2021
Coming out the global pandemic, Americans are more attuned than ever to the importance of friendship. However, despite renewed interest in the topic of friendship, signs suggest that the role of friends in American social life is experiencing a pronounced decline.
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39% of Americans have online-only friends
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69% of Americans have friends they mostly see
in a particular place
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51% of Americans are friends with people who
share activities or interests
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76% of young Americans have childhood friends
60% of older Americans have childhood friends
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Friendship in America has been declining
% of Americans with the
Following Number of
Friends in 1990 versus 2021
# of Friends....1990......2021
None.............................3%.......12%
One................................4%.........7%
Two................................9%.........13%
Three..........................11%.........17%
Four............................. 8%.........11%
Five..............................16%..........11%
Six- Nine.................14%..........14%
Ten or more ......33%.........13%
Fewer Americans Today
Have a Best Friend.
1990 75%
2021 59%
The Importance of Friends as You Age
Eatna Health Guide
Studies among older patients show that having friends can strengthen the immune system, lower blood pressure, reduce the risk of hear disease, and sharpen memory.