Current Events > how many close irl friends do you have? (no family)

(+) Yeah! (+)

are you happy with the number of close friends you have?

Depends on what constitutes "close" but I struggled to choose only 6 groomsman (well, one is a woman) for my upcoming wedding

bsp77 posted...

Depends on what constitutes "close" but I struggled to choose only 6 groomsman (well, one is a woman) for my upcoming wedding

that's definitely a good problem to have.

two friends i had from high school into early adulthood that i thought were cool got radicalized by an asshole skinhead and i basically told them to fuck off, they're assholes for letting it happen so easily.

one other i kept in contact with longer moved a few states away to get married to someone they met from bumble and i haven't talked to them very often since.

the majority of friends i made in college had to do with a long term relationship... so when that ended those friendships ended as well.

then there's work, where i haven't made any close friends. since going remote, i've lost hope on that front as well.

I have 5 people that I would put in the category of close friends and a handful of others that are just friends or acquaintances.

Use Meetup to find friends with similar interests. Works wonders. I had zero local friends after my divorce and amassed a couple dozen within a year using mostly Meetup (and hanging out at local bars).

It's not just me. I have seen lots of introverted, geeky guys make friends with Meetup.

I don't think I've ever had a close friend.

3, One that I've known since kindergarten, one I've known since 4th grade, and one from high school. Used to have a couple more, but we haven't spoke in years, and I refuse to be the first to pick up the phone.

One since elementary, one since middle, one from college, and two bandmates.

It depends what constitutes close.

Do I have to see them regularly? Or just talk to them? Because some of my friends that I speak to every day and feel very close to live on the other side of the world so we dont see each other very often.

I have no friends, close or otherwise.

I'm pretty unhappy with that, and it contributes to my depression, :/

3... One is a friend from middle school and another is his husband... All three of us are roommates... The third friend is a close coworker of mine...

3

0 lol

I'm the age where everybody has a family and most also have kids. I also moved to a different country at that age so any left over friendships I had post high school/college live way too far away to do anything more than once every few years when I make it back out that way. Work keeps me busy and my wife is also my best friend so at least I'm not lonely.

5 or so close friends. A ton of less close friends.

Honestly, I don't have the mental energy to spend on a lot of people regularly. I'll feel drained if I have to devote more deep caring to other people's lives. It's only as high as 5 because 2 sets are couples.

Glob posted...

It depends what constitutes close.

Do I have to see them regularly? Or just talk to them? Because some of my friends that I speak to every day and feel very close to live on the other side of the world so we dont see each other very often.

This.

I don't have a lot of close friends that live near me any longer. They have each moved away with time, as jobs, family, relationships, etc. brought them elsewhere (or brought me elsewhere). I also don't need to speak every day to my friends to feel close with them. There are friends of mine I would consider "close" that I haven't talked to in months, but if they showed up tomorrow (or I showed up there with them), we'd help each other/"take bullets" for one another without a second thought. Friends like that? Definitely the 9+ option. That said, I'm not sure how well it counts, because they aren't actually "family" (via blood, marriage, adoption, etc.), but they are family to me (and the poll said "no family").

None really. My one friend of 10 years pretty much ghosted me for a while about 5 years ago. I've seen him a few times since then, but we haven't really been close after that. Still don't really know why he stopped responding for a while there.

If you guys are having trouble making IRL social circles a very easy first step yall could take would be to simply do your internet browsing outside.

Stay on Discord, Reddit, GameFaqs, etcbut browse via your phone, outside your home.

Just make it a short term goal that if the sun is out, and youre not at work, in order to be on the internet you must also be out of your home.

Head to the gym, a park, a mallit doesnt really matter where you go, but just browse on the go. Doors will open up naturally, youll meet people, and discover new things.

Its really easy to do has well, and is low commitment.

I don't have friends.

I've had the same circle of friends since we met in 8-9boys summer day camp.
So 4.

Meetup.com is a decent site to find gatherings of people with similar interests

KogaSteelfang posted...

I don't have friends.

I am your friend.

STEROLIZER posted...

Meetup.com is a decent site to find gatherings of people with similar interests

Not when you live in the middle of nowhere.

Around 6 id call close. Don't talk to any of them daily

The amount of zeros here is kinda sad but not surprising. It can be done people.

One person in my life since high school that I have kept up with. He lives a few states away now, talk to him maybe once or twice a month. He's probably the only person on this planet besides my wife that I trust completely.

None. I'm not sure if I'm happy about it but I'm not dissatisfied by it. Having friends is a real chore.

2 close friends, but one moved very far away

2 I really appreciate the two close friends that I have for all these years. One of them passed away in 2019 and I definitely miss the hell out of him.

I also have 4 friends that despite not being as close I can still say yo wattup at any point and carry on a conversation like we just talked yesterday.

My one childhood friend that I was close to from age 7 up to our early 20s is the only one that just completely ghosted me at some point.

I have a lot of people I consider friends, but I only consider 4 of them close friends.

0 atm I used to have a few but im too shy to contact them after I moved lol

0. No interest in changing that unless I get rich enough to never work again, and even then, I don't see it getting that high on the to-do list.