The Cruel Lie of "Friends"
The average US adult moves 11.7 times and changes jobs around 12 times in their lifetimes.
Surveys find that millennials in particular are lonelier than they’ve ever been.
Adult friendships don't happen the way they do on TV, and that's perfectly normal. https://t.co/TFImuKUucs
- Vox (@voxdotcom) May 28, 2021
** we've long understood that tv & movies set unrealistic expectations for romantic relationships - but what about friendships?
** adult friendships aren't just challenging to create & maintain - they may be on the decline
** "Twenty-two percent of millennials in a 2019 YouGov poll said they had “no friends,” compared to 16 percent of Gen Xers and 9 percent of baby boomers."
** also we are busy busy busy! varying incomes and schedules, moving away for jobs or being closer to family, etc.
** "Real friendships are rife with conflict, separations, jealousies, and reconciliations. They are relationships like any other, stretching through their growing pains and sometimes snapping from the stress of ongoing tension. But none of that ever seems to make it to a television screen."
** some shows are catching up to the work it takes to maintain a real friendship
** some of the shows mentioned: Broad City, Parks and Rec, The Office, Living Single, Grey's Anatomy, New Girl, Insecure
SOURCE
I do remember being a kid, watching Friends and thinking "These people hang out before work in the morning??"
Do you have a lot of friends? ngl, I think about the summer I was 17 a lot, and how I'd hang out with my friends literally 24/7. It was nice!