My friend C.S. Lewis once said, friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art.

It has no survival value. Rather, it is one of those things which gives value to survival.

Do you remember when we had Frodo and Sam, Maverick and Goose, Rick and Sam,

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Tolkien and Lewis, Frog and Toad,

and then they just disappeared. And not just from the big screen. Back in 1990, a tiny minority

of men, just 3% said they had no close friends. By 2022, that number had jumped to 15%, five times more friendless men just 30 years later.

Back in the 90s, more than half of men had at least six close friends they could count on.

Now, that number's been cut in half. And even among men who do have friends, only 21% say they get emotional

support from them, and only 30% say they share their personal problems with their friends.

And when things go south, only 22% of men call a friend first. And listen, this isn't because

men are too manly for feelings and friendship.

In fact, in 2016, a Yugo of poll found that while 65% of men over 65 describe themselves

as completely masculine, only 28% of men aged 30 to 44 say the same.

So the idea that toxic masculinity is what's keeping men from opening up doesn't hold

water.

The truth is more unsettling.

Even as men have become more emotionally open and quote unquote sensitive, their friendships

have withered.

No amount of think pieces about evolving male friendship will

solve that crisis. Why? Well, as we say in the biz, it's complicated. There are so very many

factors. Lack of third spaces, death of all male clubs, smartphones and social media leading to

isolation and loneliness in every facet of society.

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