You’re not imagining it. It really is more challenging to make and keep friendships in our mobile, digital, and often distracted age.
But friendships are one of the best parts of life — so it’s worth putting in the effort. In today’s Best of Both Worlds podcast, I interview journalist Anna Goldfarb about her new book, Modern Friendship. Goldfarb shares practical strategies for finding friends, making the friends you have into closer friends, and keeping in touch with people you want to keep in your life. From making context specific friends to issuing specific invitations, this episode is full of great tips.
Feel free to chime in with your own friendship strategies. Or if you’d like to become part of a community that discusses these ideas, please come join the Best of Both Worlds Patreon group. We’d love to see you there!
Thinking about the question regarding family friends going through a divorce…following my break up, I really appreciate friends who have made an effort to ask about my schedule and who understand that it might not be as flexible as it was. My son is with me on a Saturday morning and we’d love to meet up with your family at the park. He’s at his Dad’s on a Monday evening, so if you ask me to go to an exercise class then I’ll say yes. The two can’t be swapped though, because keeping a stable routine for my son really matters so if he’s with me we’ll be together and if he’s at his dad’s then I’m on my own. And if I’m on my own, I’m very grateful to the friends check in and send a message because my son being away is an adjustment for me. I think today’s guest spoke about figuring out how you can support others to work towards their goals through your friendship, and it seems like this can apply in this situation – helping your friends to create the life they want for themselves and their child(ren).
@K- this is great advice – and I love the idea of helping your newly separated friend think through their goals and helping them create the life they want. Their schedule will probably be different — and a good friend will be aware of that and accommodating. Thanks for sharing this!