How our housing choices make adult friendships more difficult:
Why do we form such strong friendships in high school and college and form comparatively fewer as the years go on?
I read a study many years ago that I have thought about many times since, though hours of effort have failed to track it down. The gist was that the key ingredient for the formation of friendships is repeated spontaneous contact. That’s why we make friends in school — because we are forced into regular contact with the same people. It is the natural soil out of which friendship grows.
I can certainly understand this. I wake up in a fairly dark house w/ the windows closed, walk downstairs to my car, get in and arrive at work which until recently was my own private office so no social contact. I finish work and go home. I enjoy the lifestyle but it makes a ton of sense why you make most of your friends in high school. I think cities are conducive to spontaneous interactions much more than rural lifestyles.