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How many friends do we really need to be happy? I recently had Sharon Lebell, author of The Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness, on my podcast where we discussed something that we all struggle with: loneliness.
Loneliness is something humans have always had to wrestle with, however, there are challenges in our modern world that are unique to our time. One of those challenges is our focus on being “hyperconnected” on social media with hundreds or thousands of people while simultaneously having few good friends with deep connections.
I hope the following exchange can offer some wisdom:
Brandon Tumblin:
It seems to me that often people are trying to be something they’re not and when they do that they appear to not be lonely but deeply they really are lonely. That’s what you’re talking about, I think, in terms of being superficial. On the other hand, you have some people who try and be really genuine and when you first start being genuine you might lose all of your friends because you had that superficial past. I think so many people experience that when they’re young. As a teenager, you put on this facade of who you are but over time you try and take the masks.
Sharon Lebell:
I think what you’re saying points to one of the most significant crises of our time which is that our connections with other…
