I heard an expression this week that was new to me but immediately made sense. The phrase "friendship recession" is used to describe a clear trend today that sees more and more adults (men particularly) finding that they have very few or no close friends. If this is true, it means that we have a diminished support structure to carry us through difficult times, and that loneliness is becoming a very real experience for more and more people.
The phenomenon may be attributed to our growing reliance on technology for connection, rather than spending significant time together in person. One journalist even puts a number to the amount of time we need to spend with others, arguing that "friendship responds to the formula 11-3-6. That is, you need a minimum of 11 meetings of at least three hours in a period of six months to turn an acquaintance into a true friend."
In our sabbath course material this week, we heard about the practice of gathering people together weekly for a "sabbath feast" (and I heard one person share how she has been part of a circle of friends who have met weekly over the years to the point where those friends have become family). This takes some very intentional effort (especially in the beginning), but how life-giving! (and a practical way to reverse the friendship recession all around us) How about planning a sabbath feast this week?
The phenomenon may be attributed to our growing reliance on technology for connection, rather than spending significant time together in person. One journalist even puts a number to the amount of time we need to spend with others, arguing that "friendship responds to the formula 11-3-6. That is, you need a minimum of 11 meetings of at least three hours in a period of six months to turn an acquaintance into a true friend."
In our sabbath course material this week, we heard about the practice of gathering people together weekly for a "sabbath feast" (and I heard one person share how she has been part of a circle of friends who have met weekly over the years to the point where those friends have become family). This takes some very intentional effort (especially in the beginning), but how life-giving! (and a practical way to reverse the friendship recession all around us) How about planning a sabbath feast this week?