VACANCY: FRIEND WANTED

Who would've thought that making adult friendships would be so difficult - especially with more ways to interact than ever before? We get some expert advice on connecting in an increasingly digital world.

- ROBYN MACLARTY

Remember those days R when making new friends was as easy as sharing your lunch with someone during breaktime, or bonding over your mutual love for neon slap bracelets? Sadly, it's just not that simple anymore.

These days, even with the Swiss army knife of connection in the palm of our hand - the smartphone - people are as lonesome as ever. More than 300 million people around the world don't have a single friend, according to data from US workplace research company Gallup. Before the pandemic forced us all into isolation, the phrase 'loneliness epidemic' was making headlines, and things haven't improved since the lifting of lockdown. In fact, they may have gotten worse.

"I believe this is largely due to the very rapid switch to remote work -trapping people in their own homes in front of screens," says Johannesburg-based life coach Hélène Samuels. "In my experience working with clients, it's clear to me that while virtual contact is wonderful and makes more interactions possible, it loses some of the magic that is to be found in person-to-person contact. We are essentially social creatures, and we need contact that is richer and deeper - and more complex and higher risk than the constrained and limited contact the virtual world offers us."