In my early and mid-twenties, I thought that if I did enough good deeds and abstained from activities that took my mind off of my faith and purpose, that I would be rewarded with everything that I desired. That is what the bible says, right?
Well, as I'm learning, not exactly.
Reading partial scripture and focusing on verses that aligned with what I wanted is what I did for years. It wasn't until I became intentional about self-searching that I found out I had an entitled mindset.
Believing in God doesn't mean that all of the pain in your life will magically dissolve, or that you will never encounter hardship. Having a spiritual relationship means that you'll have enough faith to sustain you in the storm. Here are a few common misconceptions about being a Christian that I'd like to clear up for the whole class:
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A basis for why I feel this way? Another quote immediately comes to mind. Famed author Jane Austen once wrote: âThere is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.â You know, back when I also wrote â10 Things You Should Absolutely Expect From Your Friendshipsâ for the platform, I shared that some of the traits of a friend â a real friend â include loyalty, honesty and compassion. And if you canât say that your spouse is this way (as they say the same thing about you), chileâŚwhat is yâall doinâ over there?
So, why am I talking about marriage when this article is supposed to be about friendship? Itâs because, something that life has taught me, kinda sorta the hard way, is we should vet potential friends â especially close friends â almost like we would a spouse.
And if you keep reading, I think youâll get why I framed the intro in the way that I did.
Why Friendships Are Still Hella Essential
GiphyOkay, so before I get into why it seems that people have fewer friends than they ever had before, let me just say that, even as an ambivert who enjoys my own company and has absolutely no problem with being alone a good amount of the time, every personality type needs friends. Thatâs not just my opinion;science makes it a fact. Not only do studies support thathealthy friendships help us to feel more satisfied with our lives, but they can also reduce our chances of experiencing depression, stress, and anxiety and they increase longevity overall.
This is why â without going too deep because itâs kind of another topic for another time â itâs important to not allow past hurts and disappointments from former friends (or folks you thought were your friends) to cause you to build up walls as you declare that you donât need anyone. When you do that, all youâre really doing is working against your own health and well-being. The saying that âno man (or woman) is an islandâ? It is absolutely true.
That said, even if itâs just a couple of people, make sure that youâve got individuals in your life who you can call a friend and, in turn, they can say the very same thing about you, okay?
Are All of Those People Your Actual Friends? Or Do You Just Happen to Know a Lot of Folks?
GiphyAight but what if you happen to be someone who swings on the other side of few? Meaning, if someone were to ask you how many friends you had, youâd quickly declare that youâve got too many to count. Listen, not to patronize or anything yet, but whenever I hear folks (especially if they are over 35) say something along those lines, it takes me back to high school â a time when so many of us thought that so long as we knew a ton of folks and/or we were popular, clearly, we had many friends.
Wisdom and pure oleâ dealing with humans on a consistent basis will teach you that an article that I wrote a few years back for the platform has a title that is spot-on: âAccording To Experts, We Only Have A Few Friends â Here's Why.â According to it, the average American (based on a survey that was conducted) has somewhere around 16 friends. Oh, but wait. Last fall, I wrote another article for the platform entitled, âWhat's The 'Five Friendship Theory' All About?â According to it, if youâre someone who takes the word âfriendâ and the responsibility that comes along with it very seriously and quite literally, as an adult, you can probably only maintain about five close friendships.
Why? Well, that brings in another article that I once wrote: âLife Taught Me That True Friendships Are 'Inconvenient.'â Chile, I donât know about yâall but my friends know that if I call you that, you can call me in the middle of the night, and you can have money towards your rent (Iâm not your mama but we all have hard times sometimes) and Iâm gonna have your back in a way where youâll wonder where you stop and I start â and no, I donât have a lot of bandwidth for a ton of those people.
Okay, but what if youâre someone who is like, âI know that I have more than 16 and definitely more than five friends, no questionâ? The next thing that I would encourage you to explore is a theory by Aristotle (check out âAccording To Aristotle, We Need âUtilityâ, âPleasureâ & âGoodâ Friendsâ). Without even realizing it, many of us have people who we use the word âfriendâ for whenâŚitâs kind of like how social media apps say âfriendâ: weâre familiar with one another and enjoy some of the same things, we might even have some of the same goals; at the same time, though, weâre not âall-encompassing friends.â We just get along really well at work (utility friends) or like to go to brunch at the same spots sometimes (pleasure friends).
Taking all of this into account, are you sure that you have a ton of actual friends? Or do you just happen to know a lot of people and you use that word for the lack of having another?
And that brings me to my next point.
Thereâs A LOT of Space Between âFriendâ and âEnemyâ
GiphyIf you read a lot of my friendship content, something that you will notice me saying quite a bit is that there is quite a bit of space between friend and enemy. It needs to be mentioned, as often as possible, because there are some people who get offended if you donât consider them to be a friend â and that is unfortunate. I say that because the conclusion shouldnât automatically be that they are your enemy just because âfriendâ isnât what immediately comes to your mind.
They can be an acquaintance. They can be âcool people.â There is someone in my life who, while weâre not friends in the traditional sense, we are each otherâs confidant; years ago, we agreed that we would be the place to tell each other whatever and it would stay between us â that is the main purpose that we serve in each otherâs lives. Some people, you may consider to be spiritual family in the sense that you care for them and have some deeply profound things in common and still, they are not exactly a friend (I mean, a lot of blood relatives arenât âfriendsâ with each other).
All Iâm trying to say here is weâre all too old now to only put folks in two boxes when it comes to this particular relational dynamic: friend or enemy. So, take some time out to seriously reflect on what you consider the various people in your life to be. I can promise you from personal experience that the sooner you know and the clearer you are, the easier it will be on everybody â because needs and expectations will be clear to you (and them once you articulate them) too.
What Got Folks to Having Less Friends? The Pandemic Plays a Significant Part.
GiphySo finally on to what inspired this piece to begin with. A part of it was an article that was published last year by Big Think entitled, âAmericans more than ever have no friends. Here are 5 steps to make more friends.â Another was something that The New Yorker published back in 2021; itâs entitled âWhat COVID did to friendship.â Yâall donât have enough time and I donât have enough space to get into the fact that, just because the media may be talking about it less, that doesnât mean that weâre not still in a pandemic.
In fact,one article stated my thoughts on it quite well when it said, âThe real question, then, is not whether COVID is still a pandemic, but how much COVID illness and death are we willing to accept?â SMDH. And one of the things that has come with experiencing COVID is an interesting type of PTSD: detachment. There are plenty of articles out here to support the fact that my saying that is not merely my opinion.
Even according to the American Psychological Association, loneliness damn near skyrocketed, especially during lockdown and, unfortunately, a lot of people have not recovered from it. Thatâs why it did not surprise me at all when I read that more than ever, many people do not consider anyone to be a best friend; fewer people are relying on friends for any type of real support, and there is a semi-steady decline in people having friends, especially quality friendships, overall.
In fact, as far as close friends go, currently, close to 50 percent of Americans say that they only have three or fewer, and a relevant contributor to that was what the pandemic revealed as far as peopleâs proactive participation in other individualsâ lives (I actually read that young women were the ones who lost touch with friends during the peak of the pandemic the most). I also thought it was interesting that some studies cite that 12 percent of Americans say that they donât have any friends at all.
Is the pandemic the only cause? No. So are things like people working more hours and spending more time online than they probably should (which also increased due to the pandemic, though). To that, Teen Vogue once published, âSocial Media Is Impacting IRL Friendshipsâ and Healthline once published, âSocial Media Is Killing Your Friendships.â Then we also have to factor in having families of our own which can also take up a lot of time, and that sometimes can cause us to forget to nurture our friendships; so, before you know it, they fade to black. Not due to a fallout or anything, justâŚlife.
And all of this? Some people are saying that it has led to what is known as a âfriendship recession.â A huge flag about that is there are reports that a drop in close friends can cultivate a type of loneliness that is just as health hazardous as smoking a whopping 15 cigarettes a day. Not good, yâall. Not. Good.
Quality over Quantity Is Key. Just Make Sure That You Have a Friend or Two.
GiphyOkay, so what is my overall point? Thatâs a fair question. Just like sometimes âlife life-ingâ can make us forget to tend to our friendships, if you donât stumble across content like this, you might not even realize that youâre feeling mentally stressed, emotionally strained, or super isolated and itâs all because you need to prioritize your friendships â because your mind, body, and spirit need them. Again, science has proved it.
At the same time, if, like a client of mine, you find yourself getting a little bit paranoid because you have noticed that over the past several years, your close friend count has been far less than what it used to be, this article proves that you are absolutely not (pardon the pun) alone. Honestly, thereâs nothing wrong with having a very small circle of friends because quality is gonna beat out quantity every time; you just need to assess when it happened and why so that you can be sure that you are choosing it to play out that way and itâs not due to some underlying cause that you hadnât taken into consideration â until now.
An Italian priest by the name of Thomas Aquinas once said, âThe happy man in this life needs friends.â Even if itâs just one or two people, please make sure that you have folks who arenât just your friend but your very close friend. You need them. They need you.
Everyone else, figure out where they fall and nurture accordingly. Life is a lot. We all get by with the help of our friends. Real talk, yâall. Thank goodness for them.
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