[watwut]

> Social circles have been shrinking for men and women, especially since the pandemic, but men struggle more. Thirty years ago, 55 percent of men reported having six or more close friends. By 2021, that share had slipped to 27 percent.

I am surprised over this. I thought the boys have advantage over girls in pandemic friends keeping. First, they play videogames as a form of socialization much more and therefore pandemic affected it much less. They still kept playing games with friends. And second, because non-feminist and slightly anti-feminists pundits created minor panic over girls socialization. (I put emphasis on non-and-slightly-anti-feminist, because feminists focusing on girls does not imply anything special).

Like, I get how video games as form of socialization prevent finding partner. But I am surprised they did not helped boys to keep friends.

[igetspam]

But it turns out, we're just not very good at being friends or a social group.

https://www.iflscience.com/20-kids-were-left-alone-in-a-hous...

(No, this is not scientific but it's pretty interesting.)

[watwut]

I suspect this has a lot to do with sample selection. Because while there are statistical differences between cleanness of genders or bullying behavior, you don't really get angelic perfect girls vs evil mischieving boys unless you intentionally selects for it. And yes I am in contact with kids.

The shows like this put a lot of effort into selecting performers so that the end result is funny and entertaining. The kids knew they are performing for TV and the families that allow their kids to be on show like that are also very biased sample.