I spend most of my nights (weeknight or or otherwise) with my friends. I'm on Discord with them right now as I write this.
It wouldn't show up in this study at all, because it's online, not in-person. These particular friends live thousands of miles from me.
I also have dedicated nights of the week for seeing my in-person friends, and the amount that I do that has stayed pretty consistent (outside of COVID), but it's never been nearly as much as my virtual friend time. I have friend groups more than a decade old that I've maintained this way.
(The mix is about 75% people I met first in the real world, 25% people I met first or have only met online, if that matters.)
I spend most of my nights (weeknight or or otherwise) with my friends. I'm on Discord with them right now as I write this.
It wouldn't show up in this study at all, because it's online, not in-person. These particular friends live thousands of miles from me.
I also have dedicated nights of the week for seeing my in-person friends, and the amount that I do that has stayed pretty consistent (outside of COVID), but it's never been nearly as much as my virtual friend time. I have friend groups more than a decade old that I've maintained this way.
(The mix is about 75% people I met first in the real world, 25% people I met first or have only met online, if that matters.)
Seems like COVID changed us
The article states the decline began in the mid 2010s. Covid may have sped things along but it wasn't the cause.