Brian Laird on WNYC, and for our last 15 minutes today, let's talk about friendship.

You may have heard of America's loneliness epidemic.

Approximately half of U.S. adults reported experiencing measurable levels of loneliness.

And that was before COVID.

The U.S. Surgeon General even raised an advisory last year calling loneliness a public health crisis.

But a new piece in the Atlantic examined new data that found Americans do have friends,

about four to five on average, but don't spend regular time seeing each other, finding show that

Americans now spend less than three hours a week with friends compared with more than six

hours a decade ago. So we're going to talk to the writer of that article, but I want to

get the phones going on this to ask if that sounds like you. If that resonates with you,

want to give you the opportunity to call in and tell your story. What's the status of your

friendships in 2024? Do you find yourself regularly chatting with friends over text or

social media, but you rarely see them in person? Do you have a friend who you always want to get

together with, but you can rarely find the time? Call us 212-433 WNYC. 212-433-969-92, and maybe success stories too.

Like you found a way to regularly catch up with friends.

You got tired of saying on the phone or on texts, oh, let's do lunch.

And then you never do lunch.

So you've merged friend group so that your time together is a one and done kind of thing,

but you see them, or if you're part of any social circles, and if so, how you found them

recently or anything else you want to share about how you prioritize your friendships,

or if you have a lot of friends, you just don't see them,

as the article suggests.

...