In need of a friend

AMERICANS have fewer close friends than they did 19 years ago, researchers have found.

Using data from the General Social Survey, one of the nation’s longest-running surveys of social, cultural and political issues, researchers compared responses from 1985 and 2004 and found that the mean number of people “with whom Americans can discuss matters important to them,” dropped by almost one-third, from 2.94 people in 1985, to 2.08 people in 2004. The number of people who have no one to talk to doubled to 25%.

People are relying more on family, the researchers found, with those who speak only to kin about important matters increasing from 57% to 80%, and those speaking solely to their spouses about such things growing from 5% in 1985 to 9% in 2004.

Longer work hours, lengthier commutes and the substitution of Internet connections for live ones may have contributed to the breakdown of social networks, said Lynn Smith-Lovin, a sociology professor at Duke University and one of the authors of the study. “It could be that people reacted by closing in on a small number of people they have known for a long time,” she said.

The National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago conducted face-to-face interviews with Americans older than 18. The study was published in the June issue of the American Sociological Review.