Friendship & Human Connection
Connection with others provides people with a sense of belonging. Friends help people feel valuable to the world around them, provide opportunities to vent, and give people a way to talk about their interests, worries, opinions and more.
As the articles in this section highlight, Americans generally have fewer friends today than their counterparts in 1990 had. Each friend group has unique in- and out-group dynamics, but generally being connected to more people brings with it a higher sense of trust in the world around us. Real-world friends can be a moderating force. We react to what our friends approve or disapprove of. If we disagree significantly, the friendship likely ends. But often, and without consciously considering it, we find ways to show our friends that our ideas aren't so different from their ideas.
In the past, people had to make connections and develop friendships in person. With social media, we can instead sort ourselves into groups of people who already think the same way that we do. Then, once sorted into this type of group, our words and actions can become more extreme because of the social climate of the group.
What does that mean? Let's say you join an online group that's interested in camping. It may be a place to get tips on good campgrounds, cheap and durable gear, or fishing piers. Or, it may be mostly people discussing how much they love to camp. Now it's a competition. To be of high value in this group, you will have to prove that you like camping more than anyone else. One person says they camp every weekend. The next person says they camp for weeks at a time. Finally, someone looking to make a splash says they live in a tent on a campground and refuse to shower indoors. Want to be the coolest user in the group? Now you have to compete with a year-round camper.
That's the type of phenomenon that happens often in our politics now that much of our information originates from social media and is predominantly shared online. Social media pushes people away from the median and further into extremes. Online in-group vs. out-group dynamics also push society to greater extremes all the time. An in-group is a group of people who are connected by a common interest, like the campers on our camping page. People who are not interested in camping are the campers' out-group. Posting about their problems with non-campers offers the in-group, campers, the opportunity to bond. In this example, the results may not be a big problem. Some campers may be frustrated by people in their lives who don't want to camp with them. They may feel a benefit in talking to fellow campers about their frustrations.
Unfortunately, when groups are sorted around a political movement, candidate, or party, attacking the out-group creates significant hostility. It's easy to assume "the other side" is evil and maybe even threatening when you're only consuming information from and associating with your in-group.
Most readings linked in this section focus on real-world friendships, while online friendships are discussed in the "Internet Culture and Algorithms" section.
The articles linked in this section focus on:
survey details about friendships in America by gender, race, and age (Pew)
survey comparisons of self-reported friendships in 1990 vs. 2021 (Cox)
discussion of the values of friendships and challenges in making friends as an adult (Abrams)
the science of friendship with comparisons to romantic love and acquaintanceship (Puff)
A guide to helping friends and family get out of conspiratorial bubbles (Firth)
Sources
Abrams, Zara, "The Science of Why Friendships Keep Us Healthy" 1 June 2023
Pew Research, "What Does Friendship Look Like in America?" 12 Oct. 2023
This page was written and edited by Jay Trucker
August 2026
Contact
Jay Trucker, Ph.D.
jtrucker@ccbcmd.edu
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