Friendship recession, part 3

 Some further notes on the evidence regarding a "friendship recession."

1.  My last post mentioned a survey from 2019 that asked about the number of "true friends."  That survey also had a question on loneliness:  "How much of the time do you feel lonely:  All of the time, most of the time, only sometimes, or hardly ever?" 3% said all the time, 5% most of the time, 23% only sometimes, and 67% hardly ever.  A 1990 Gallup survey asked "how often do you ever feel lonely,":  10% said frequently, 26% sometimes, 40% seldom, and 23% never.  A Los Angeles Times survey from 1989 asked "Everybody is lonely sometimes. Would you say that you are often lonely or seldom lonely?"  9% said often, 82% seldom, and 7% volunteered that they never felt lonely.    A NORC survey from July-August 2020 asked whether you had recently felt "very lonely or remote from other people."  32% said that they had. The same question was asked in a number of surveys from 1963 to 2001, with "yes" responses ranging from from 17% to 28%, so the 2020 figure was the highest ever.  But that was in the early stages of Covid, when there were significant restrictions on face-to-face interaction.  Considering all of those questions, I don't think that there's much evidence for a long-term rise in loneliness.  

2.  Claude Fischer had a post on changes in the reported number of friends.  In addition to the 2021 survey that I discussed in my previous post, he found a 2023 Pew survey in which similar numbers said that they had no close friends.  

3.  There were two surveys of teenagers (13-17) that asked about the number of close friends.  Unfortunately the categories used in the reports weren't identical, but they were close:

                      2018                  2024

0                       2%                   2%
1-5                  77%                 78%
6-9                  11%
6-10                                        15%
10+                    9%
more than 10                             5%

The results are very similar.  Moreover, the 2018 survey just asked about the number of close friends, while the 2024 survey included the qualifier "not counting family"--to the extent that matters, it would mean the comparison is biased towards finding a decline.  

4.    Back in 1950, the Gallup Poll asked ""When you have personal problems, do you like to discuss them with anyone to help clear them up, or not?" 64% said yes and 35% said no.  There was some sex difference between men and women, but it was not that large (69% yes among women, 62% among men).  Apart from the results, I think that it's interesting that they asked it that way.  Today, the general assumption is that it's a need, not something that you might or might not like to do.

[Data from the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research]