Recession is a term that has dominated the news headlines in recent months, with both the IMF and the World Bank warning about a possible global recession. But have you heard of the friendship recession?
In a recent post, Indian stock broker firm Zerodha's co-founder Nikhil Kamath shared that he is worried about the world facing a ¡°friendship recession¡±, with a number of people admitting to lacking close friends.?
Taking to Twitter, Kamath shared some infographics from a 2021 survey by the American Perspective, which described the "friendship recession as the rise in the number of people who lack a certain number of close friends?and fewer people to rely on in terms of crisis. "The more philosophy you read (not stoic), having a community seems to be the biggest precursor to #happiness (as fleeting as it might be). I have 5 bros in my life I would do all for, life-changing this is, seriously," Nikhil Kamath tweeted.
The American Perspective Survey highlighted that friendship recession could become a serious crisis in the future as loneliness is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.?It pointed out four factors that are causing a decline in friendships: geographic mobility, increased parental focus on child-rearing, work-centric culture, and breakdown of relationships leading to the separation of friend groups.
According to the survey, 15% of men reported lacking a close friend, compared to only 3 percent in the 1990s. Meanwhile, more than half of women lost touch with their friends during the COVID pandemic, as the report mentioned.
Raising the alarm on the 'friendship recession', the survey said that if the trend continues there could be more "atomized individuals and a dystopian outlook". The lesser number of friends in our lives would also increase "sadness and ill health."
When seen agewise, females aged 18 to 29 years were the ones who remained the least in regular contact with their friends and were the ones that lost touch with most friends. They were also the ones who lost most touch with their few friends. Those aged 30 and above fared better on all these grounds.??
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Speaking on friendship recession, Dr. Robin Dunbar, an anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist, and a top researcher into friends and friendship, told The Guardian, "Studies have shown, the single biggest predictor of our psychological health and wellbeing, our physical health and wellbeing, and even how much longer we¡¯re going to live, is the number of close friendships and family relationships we have."
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