This is an issue of The Wonder Reader, a magazine in which our editors recommend a set of stories to pique your curiosity and delight you. Register here get it every saturday morning.
When Andrew McCarthy’s 21-year-old son turned to him and asked, “You really don’t have any friends, do you, Dad?” McCarthy had to stop and think. He had friends—at least he thought he did—but he saw and heard from them so rarely that he began to wonder if they still seemed to be his friends. He asked himself: “What did I get from my friends, and what should I give them?” The question put her on a mission to reunite with a few of her boyfriends, and it wasn’t as easy as she’d hoped.
“A 2021 study found that 15 percent of men admitted to having no close friends at all, up from 3 percent in 1990, while less than half of men said they were satisfied with how many friends they had,” McCarthy writes.” Friendships are difficult to maintain as the demands of work, family and life come into play, but the social stigma some men face when they open up and become vulnerable can make things even more difficult.
On Male Friendship
Are They Still Your Friends If You Can’t See Them?
By Andrew McCarthy
America’s male friendship crisis
How Passionate Male Friendship Died
By Tiffany Watt Smith
The “perfect” platonic bond was between two men. What happened?
The Pain of Texting with Men
By Matthew Schnipper
Most guys are bad at texting their friends—and it might just make them lonelier.
Still Curious?
Other detours
PS
I recently asked readers to share a photo of something that makes them wonder in the world. Cindy G. sent in this photo of a sunrise in Bucksport, Maine.
I will continue to focus on your responses in the coming weeks.
— Isabel
