Americans' time with friends fell 37 percent before the pandemic ever started, and the places where friendship used to just happen are closing fastest where they were already scarce.
Third places, the cafe, the bar, the library, the lodge, are infrastructure, not willpower. Lose the room and you lose the friendship it used to hold.
- Bowling alleys are down about 32 percent since 2005; church membership fell below half the country in 2020
- Researchers find the loss concentrates in majority-Black, rural, and lower-education neighborhoods, the ones with the least to spare
- The library is the one third place that cannot be priced out, and the one least likely to still be standing where it is needed most
You can text the friend. You cannot opt back into a place that has closed.
