Connor Beaton argues that friendships and socialization are necessary for optimal mental and emotional health, particularly for men who are increasingly spending time alone. He notes many men are lonelier than before, may lack people to turn to in hard times, and may contribute to their isolation through behaviors like pushing others away or failing to follow up.
Chapters
On average men, especially younger men, but also older men, are spending more and more time by themselves. Many of you are sitting there thinking, I like spending time by myself. I like solitude. I also like being self sufficient. I enjoy my life the way that it is. And sometimes other people can be a pain in the ass and they can be irritating. But the reality is that we need friendships, we need socialization for the optimal mental and emotional health in order for us to share life with. And. And the truth is that many men are lonelier than ever before and not just in the amount of time that they're spending together. You might not even feel like you have anybody in your life that you can talk to when things are going south or to get some advice from or some guidance from. And that may have inadvertently been something that you did intentionally, or it might be something that you did unintentionally. Maybe you feel like you're hard to get along with, or you're combative, or you push people away, or you're the guy that just like never follows up with friends and you're elusive and aloof and you linger in the background and just hope that somebody reach out to you.
