Saturday, June 13, 2009

"Forever" Is Less Than 7 Years












Thought this was an interesting item. It's been a while since I've declared anyone a BFF (best friend forever), and that seems wise now. A sociologist did a study of people and their friend groups. From the article: "Utrecht University sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst surveyed 604 people about their friends and again seven years later, and found that only 48 percent of people’s original friends were still part of their network after that time period."

I am curious how this would look in my life. I recently went to two reunions of sorts. The first one with former co-workers and I still count many of them as friends and make an effort to keep in touch. My former boss' daughter is now 14 years old. I remember working an event in Golden Gate park when she was just three years old and clamoring to ride the carousel. Grown kids are annoying reminders of the passage of time.

I'm now tempted to make a list of everyone in my life right now, set my alarm clock for seven years from now and see what happens.

Now off to drink more coffee.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

If it makes you feel better, I will still be stalking you in 7 years.

Laura Swisher said...

We'll see, Jason. We'll see. I think you'll give up in two years.

Butternut said...

Stalkers are a finicky bunch. I prefer to lurk. It fits better with my lazy personality. It also means that if I slack off for a couple days I'm not missed.