According to a study documented in the June 2006 issue of the journal American Sociological Review, Americans are thought to be suffering a loss in the quality and quantity of close friendships since at least 1985.[2][3] The study states 25% of Americans have no close confidants, and the average total number of confidants per citizen has dropped from four to two.
According to the study:
* Americans' dependence on family as a safety net went up from 57% to 80%
* Americans' dependence on a partner or spouse went up from 5% to 9%
* Research has found a link between fewer friendships (especially in quality) and psychological regression
In recent times, it is postulated modern American friendships have lost the force and importance they had in antiquity. C.S. Lewis for example, in his The Four Loves, writes:
“ To the Ancients, Friendship seemed the happiest and most fully human of all loves; the crown of life and the school of virtue. The modern world, in comparison, ignores it. We admit of course that besides a wife and family a man needs a few 'friends'. But the very tone of the admission, and the sort of acquaintanceships which those who make it would describe as 'friendships', show clearly that what they are talking about has very little to do with that Philía which Aristotle classified among the virtues or that Amicitia on which Cicero wrote a book. ”
source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendship
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