An entertaining and interesting article even though the veracious use of the "F" word was a bit much.
My Dad spent several years taking care of my Mom and many of his friends went on their own paths. After Mom died, Dad started have some friends over on Sundays for Happy Hour and it really made his life "worth living." I lived 15 minutes away and saw him pretty much every other day. We also had a standing lunch at the local Ihop where he could tell his stories to innocent/unknowing patrons. As he aged, his older friends started to die and you could see how that affected him. Ultimately, he lost all his friends and he passed not too much longer after that. Sure, he was almost 91 years old and had pretty bad COPD, but I do think that the loss of his friends didn't help.
Thankfully, my DW *is* my best friend. We kind of met in a "friendly" way too, so it's been that way for 17 years. I am not sure what I would do without her.
I have 3 friends I talk to on a regular basis, none of which live near me. There are a couple of former w*rk/flying colleagues that live in the local area and we get together once every 3 months or so for lunch or something. Other than that, just a lot of "2nd level" friends or what I would probably just call acquaintances. There is also an annual camping trip I take where 4-5 of us old school buds meet up for a few days...and that's really plenty for me.
Speaking of popular, my high school class is trying to wrangle folks for the 30 year reunion. We had a graduating class of nearly 600, yet only 26 people have signed up. The reunion self-anointed leader has tried everything to get the required 60 people to sign up to be able to use the venue. One of his last posts was basically trying to guilt people into going to which I felt the need to respond. I basically outlined that fact that most folks are still keeping up with those they liked then & now and have little to no desire to "relive" the HS years. My response was immediately deleted and not responded to. Although I didn't dislike HS, I have zero desire to relive those days.