Can I live without friends? Some people will answer this question by saying "of course I can live". I am alive. I have no friends and I am completely alive. Of course, this is true.
Lack of social ties won't kill you. Your heart will not stop and therefore you will not be erased. However, what is your quality of life without friends? Are you well-off or full of feelings of emptiness?
Of course, no one will die just because they don't even have a friend. However, in many cases this causes sadness, disappointment, and despair. We can say that one of the reasons people go to therapy is the feeling of loneliness. They cannot establish strong social bonds and have no one to talk to, laugh and share good times.
Humans are social beings and their brains need this quality interaction with their peers in order to enjoy positive emotions, feel validated, and find security.
As we mentioned earlier, from an evolutionary psychological perspective, having friends is not essential for our survival, but it adds more quality to our lives and can help us find true happiness.
Is it possible to live without friends?
People often say that the quality of our social relationships is fueled by the experiences we have in our family. However, this is not entirely true.
Some people have a traumatic history due to abusive or loveless parents and yet have been able to find a true "family" built on bonds of friendship. Sometimes it even happens the opposite. Having a loving family does not guarantee that we can build solid friendships in all situations.
On the other hand, beyond all this, no one can deny that good friends bring color to our lives. These people exist naturally. Unlike the family, they are not given to us from birth. Without knowing how, they become unexpected treasures that travel with us at a certain time in our lives and sometimes even forever.
It is true that some friends come and go. Some are fake friendships and others are real, but all of them can make us better people in some way.
However, some people have been without friends for a long time, due to their lack of social skills or disappointments in their lives. Therefore, the question is: can one live without friends?
It is possible to live without friends because we are increasingly living in an individualistic society
Yes, it is really possible to live without friends. In fact, at the University of Arizona, Dr. Research work by Ingrid Davidson has shown something interesting and invites us to consider its meaning.
Indeed, they discovered that friendships help us experience happiness. However, this factor is not the most important factor for humans as a whole.
The most decisive factor is the fulfillment of basic needs and a feeling of being competitive at the same time. It is more desirable to feel independent, have basic aspects such as food, work, housing, and even have a partner. We can add another factor here: "liquid relationships".
As the philosopher and sociologist Zygmunt Bauman said, society is becoming increasingly individualistic. This makes ties and contacts more fragile, unreliable, and even difficult. Friends come and go and rarely stay. While this can create dissatisfaction, some people get used to it.
I don't need friends because I socially communicate with a lot of people
People need access to everyday social interaction, at least the most basic. Talking to colleagues at work and talking to neighbors or a salesman at a local store.
This feels good, and many people feel so good that they don't even need to go any further. They do not seek and do not want to reinforce solid ties that will become true friendships.
Therefore, this type of superficial interaction is sufficient for some men and women. These people could safely say that a person can truly live without friends.
