"The good news is that building more 'social' into our lives is very cost-effective — getting coffee with a friend, talking to a neighbor, or volunteering won't make your wallet light and could significantly improve your life. The bad news is that as a society, we're blowing it. Over the last half-century, there has been a steady decline in nearly all things social apart from social media. People are significantly less likely to be married today than they were fifty years ago. We volunteer less, participate in fewer social groups, and entertain people in our homes less often than we used to.
"To me the most troubling statistics focus on our friendships. In a survey given in 1985, people were asked to list their friends in response to the question 'Over the last six months, who are the people with whom you discussed matters important to you?' The most common number of friends listed was three; 59 percent of respondents listed three or more friends fitting this description. The same survey was given again in 2004. This time the most common number of friends listed was zero. And only 37 percent of respondents listed three or more friends. Back in 1985, only 10 percent indicated that they had zero confidants. In 2004, this number skyrocketed to 25 percent. One out of every four of us is walking around with no one to share our lives with. Being social makes our lives better. Yet every indication is that we are getting less social, not more."
