Scientists Warn of A “Friendship Recession” — I’m Part of It

And the 11–3–6 rule that might help

Photo by Surface on Unsplash

A few weeks ago, I joined a local “comedic acting” class. The instructor asked us to introduce ourselves and explain why we were there — probably assuming we’d say things like I’ve always wanted to be on stage! or I did improv in college and it was fun.

But I decided to be honest:

“I’m just here because … I need to get out of my house,” I admitted.

In truth, I would have signed up for anything. Comedy class, jewelry-making, naked figure drawing, reiki hand-waving, whatever. I just needed to talk to people, ideally ones who might eventually learn my name or even compliment my shoes.

I’m thirsty for friends. It’s embarrassing. I’m far too old to be courting acquaintances like some middle school girl at Claire’s, harassing strangers for their opinion on $5 earrings. But here we are.

I thought that being honest about why I was in comedy class might make everyone laugh (at me? with me? who knows) before they went on to give their normal, theater-related reasons for being there. But instead, this is what they said:

“I work remotely and I haven’t seen anybody — and I mean anybody — in, like, a week? Or two? So, I signed up for this.”