"The truth is, maintaining close friendships gets harder as we get older. Life gets busy, priorities shift, and before we know it, we're surrounded by acquaintances and colleagues but missing those deep, reliable connections that once felt so natural. What's particularly tricky is that social isolation doesn't always look like what we expect. Some of the loneliest people I know have packed social calendars and hundreds of LinkedIn connections."
"Have you ever left a conversation feeling completely drained, only to realize you barely spoke about yourself? This used to be me on the other side of that equation. I learned this the hard way when someone I cared about finally called me out. "You only talk about work," she said. "I don't even know what's actually going on in your life anymore." That stung because it was true."
Many people crave simple check-ins from friends even amid busy lives. Maintaining close friendships becomes harder with age as responsibilities and priorities shift, leaving more acquaintances than intimate confidants. Social isolation can be hidden behind active social calendars and many professional contacts; surface functioning can mask a lack of people who truly know someone. A friendship can fade through slow drift, showing that maintenance, not shared history, sustains bonds. Subtle habits often block closeness: dominating conversations, steering topics back to oneself, and overidentifying through work. Real connection requires creating space for others to share and intentional upkeep of relationships.
Read at Silicon Canals
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