Loneliness is a health epidemic, but friendships can lower blood pressure and cardiovascular reactivity – and make us happier
My closest friends all live in my phone. By which I mean I have an active group chat. It began 1o years ago as a casual work chat, but we message every day. Recently, one of us shared a link to a news story about seven friends in their 30s who pooled resources to build their dream home. “We’re doing this, right?” I responded, half-joking, but the seed had been planted. Why would I peg my future to a life partner I don’t have yet, rather than the friends I’ve had longest?
Almost four years after Covid imposed long-term social isolation, many of us are rethinking the value of friendship, including Gyan Yankovich, the author of Just Friends. “So many of the things we do and milestones we celebrate revolve around the idea that the nuclear family and marriage should be valued above all else,” she tells me. “The way society is set up doesn’t make prioritizing friendship easy.”
