Why Is It Hard to Make Friends Over 30? (2012)
I&#x27;m 33, and this hits pretty hard.<p>Ever since I graduated college, I&#x27;ve watched my circle of friends dwindle over the years, as all of us have busy lives and don&#x27;t have much room for socialization, especially not when factoring in each other&#x27;s schedules.<p>I stopped talking to one of the few close friends I had left after he married an extremist tradcon and started posting a constant stream of hate. It&#x27;s really disheartening to watch a guy who used to be one of the most compassionate people I know post memes with slurs in them (including slurs against a group I&#x27;m part of), videos by Neo-Nazis, rants about how Jimmy Kimmel&#x27;s done deserves to die, etc. He went from being like a brother to me to being someone I never want to talk to again. And even before he completely jumped down the alt-right rabbit hole, as soon as he started dating her, I would never see him without her ever again. It was draining inviting him to hang out places and him always bringing his then-girlfriend who I hated with him every single time. Even when I went to buy him expensive scotch at a bar to congratulate him on his engagement (because even though I hate her guts, I was still happy for him that he found someone), she decided to tag along (seriously, that was supposed to be a private moment between me and him)... I really regret wasting that money on scotch for both of them given what he&#x27;s turned into.<p>In the last month, I have set foot of my house to socialize exactly once, and that was for a friend&#x27;s birthday party... so that&#x27;s not going to happen again for another year.<p>Facebook has been a godsend, because it&#x27;s basically the only way I talk to most people anymore. Through Facebook, I can stay in touch with a bunch of people who I wouldn&#x27;t have the opportunity to see in real life. I have a ton of friends I get along with really well but for various reasons none of us are able to get together in real life, so Facebook it is.<p>It doesn&#x27;t help that I have no interest in getting married or having children. In fact, the idea of either sickens me. So as everybody else is pairing off to get married or spending 99% of their free time taking care of kids, I&#x27;m stuck by myself. I just wish I had more single (and preferably asexual) friends to hang with.<p>I actively hate being in my 30s. I wish I was in college again, because I really miss the vibrant social life I had back then.