How many friends do you have?

[Ravenfreak]

I don't have many friends to be honest with you. My wife is my best friend and I have internet friends but as for friends in person I only really have a handful of people I would call friends and there's one that is a bit iffy. I don't hang out with him often because sometimes he comes over unannounced after we told him not to do that anymore. He also made me feel like crap yesterday, he brought up that one of our other friends who moved out of state drank bleach but he's doing fine now. Then he made a comment saying anytime our plans fall through he feels like his friends don't like him and that he wants to drink bleach, bruh who tf says that? He mentioned he feels bad having those feelings but yikes. I'm not really good at keep up with real life friends though... I have a hard time keeping conversations with them and it's hard to plan times to hang out. I think it's something I need to work on, I love my wife but I need to also have friends I can talk to besides her. Anyways sorry to dump all that in this thread, how many friends do you have?

 

[Senkusha]

Since I've moved to Boston in 2020, I don't have any friends... at least in real life. When I first moved here, I had some people that I would kind of hang out with, but it was during the height of COVID. So people really didn't get out much. During the last six years, I've met my partner, a disabled person, so most of my free time is spent tending toward her needs. The rest of my living time is spent away at work, while I slave over customer service to afford RENT.

I'd REALLY like to have some friends, even if it's people just hanging around on the internet, on Discord, or whatever just to bounce ideas back and forth... like the old days of MSN Messenger. I've tried to build a community forum, like I had in the early 2000s, but most people hang out on Social Media now. I get it, it's addictive, it's totally easy to post a quick sentence or two about some hot topic and then wait for other people to react. Very little thought goes into that content.

The online role playing community has also changed considerably. What used to happen on forums was multi-authored fan stories. Now, it seems like most people just want to do 1x1 role plays, and that usually involves fictional romance or worse, erotica-- and that's no fun for an asexual person like me, who's happy with her relationship status in life.

Like, right now, I'm struggling to just write anything creatively. I don't have that fun, loose bond with another human being. And AI doesn't help at all. Those conversations are ... flat at best. Maybe I'm just getting too old for everything.

Sorry for ranting all over the topic, but it's what's on my heart right now. Seems like making friends in 2026 is darn near impossible.