The dog was asleep in the corner, and I was seated at the kitchen table, drinking a cup of weak tea. My 21-year-old son sat cross-legged on the floor, messing with his guitar, telling me a funny story about a dating disaster involving one of his good friends. Sam considered me'probably knew I was full of it (even if I didn't at the moment)'then graciously accepted my answer with a nod. But his comment stayed with me. What had happened to my friendships' Were they still there, as I had claimed' What did I get from my friends, and what did I have to offer them' I sipped my tea'it was cold. Men, it turns out, have lost the knack for friendship. A 2021 survey found that 15 percent of men confessed to having no close friends at all, up from 3 percent in 1990, while fewer than half of men said they were satisfied with how many friends they had. Only one in five men reported having received any form of emotional support from a friend in the past week. In the days following my son's...
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