Is adulthood when you start to struggle to maintain friendships?
@Oyetessa: Affirmative.
It's also extremely difficult to find any to start. That said, I am speaking specifically about IRL, not online and non-local.
@thedisasterautist do you find online/distance relationships easier?
@Oyetessa: People want to mean well and do mean well, and at the same time they want what feels like "better", i.e., closer, more proximal, preferably nearby or immediately adjacent. Many also like to "trade up" when possible, though they still mean well. The meaning well takes a back seat when pushing comes to shoving and more well often than it does not. Alas, quite often it winds up people introduce themselves with an energy they cannot maintain... or never really intended to.
@Oyetessa: It's just they didn't want to be alone, either companionately, romantically, or sexually, but they couldn't be up-front and honest about it.
Also, a lot of folks don't allow friendships but especially relationships come together organically. They label and rush. It's weird AF to me but at this point it's fairly predictable. I understand it clinically, but it's alien to me as a person. Humans are strange, but ya gotta love'em. 👽
@Oyetessa: Also, people tend to be super-weird about platonic relationships. They're even weirder about polyamory, though I get why. The term gets routinely hijacked by malign actors and dipshits.
@Oyetessa: Somewhat. The trick is that online/distance ones are rather at peril from anything happening locally *and* online. The other trick is that the majority or at least the larger preponderance of people will follow paths of least resistance. When there's nothing much local, the shop online, and things are cool... until something pops up locally, at which point the online/distance gets punted. It gets dressed up, i.e., lied about, all kinds of ways, but it's the case nonetheless.