How friendships change in adulthood🧑🤝🧑-
What we're covering..
Introduction 👋
Our lives change a lot when we become adults – and so do our friendships.
Whether it’s juggling busy schedules or staying connected across distances, understanding these changes can help us navigate the ups and downs of adult friendships.
Today we’re explaining 11 ways our friendships change when we become adults.
11 ways friendships change in adulthood 🔀
1. We get new priorities 🏆
When we’re young, we might have more time for friends, and they are extremely important.
But as we grow older, other things like:
- jobs
- family
- looking after a home
- romantic relationships
- figuring out who we are
become bigger deals. 📈
This means we might not spend time with friends as much, but when we do, it’s can make it more special.
2. We focus on the best🌟
When you’re younger, people usually want loads of friends, but as adults people often care more about having just a few really good ones. 💖
As an adult your time can be really limited, so people tend to focus on quality friendships rather than having lots of them.
Younger people might tolerate difficult friendships, but as adults we want friends who understand us and support us, not just a bunch of acquaintances. 🤝
3. Distance grows 🗺️
When you’re younger, it’s common to have lots of friends nearby. 📌
As adults, it’s common for friends to move further away for things like:
- school,
- family,
- romantic relationships,
- or work.
Keeping in touch can be tough, but we find ways like video calls and texts to stay connected. 📱
4. Our life stages change 🐣
When we’re younger, our friends are usually in similar stages of life.
As we become adults our lives become a lot more different, and at different times we start to reach different life stages like:
- making progress in our careers 💼
- starting a family
- moving house 🏡
- renting a home
- buying a home 🔑
- meeting a romantic partner
- getting married 👰
- losing family members
It can suddenly feel like we’re on different paths to our friends, but with understanding, we can still stay close with them.
5. We need different support 💖
Life’s not always fair, and neither are friendships. ⚖️
Adult life can be overwhelming, and sometimes one friend needs more support than the other.
Learning to give and take helps to keep friendships strong. 💪
6. Growing together 🪴
As we grow up, we learn more about ourselves. 🪞
Taking time for hobbies, learning new things, and looking after ourselves not only makes us happier but also helps us to grow better friendships. 🤝
7. Making new friends can get more difficult 😟
As we get older, making friends can be harder. 👎
Adults get busier with work and family, so we have less time to meet new people.
When we get older our interests can become more specific, which can make it tricky to find friends with the same hobbies.
As adults we might also become pickier about who we spend time with, preferring to have a few close friends instead of many acquaintances. 🧑🤝🧑
Sometimes, we’re afraid of being rejected or feeling vulnerable, so we might hesitate to reach out to new people.
Overall, making friends as adults can take more effort because life gets more complicated. 🥴
8. Some friends drift apart 👎
People change, and so do friendships. Some friends might drift away, while others stick around.
It’s important not to take it personally when we lose friends as adults because friendships naturally change over time. ⌛
People grow and evolve, and sometimes, they drift apart for various reasons that may have nothing to do with us personally. 🗺️
Life circumstances, such as moving away, changing jobs, or starting families, can impact the dynamics of friendships. Also our individual interests, values, and priorities may shift, leading to a natural change in paths. 🔀
Understanding that these changes are a normal part of life can help us navigate losing our friendships, and give us space for new connections and friendships to grow. 🪴
9. We can do more fun things with friends✈️
An exciting thing that comes from becoming an adult, is that we can do more fun things with our friends.
As we gain more money and independence, the fun options of activities we can do with friends increases.
Adults have more freedom to do fun activities with friends like:
- Going on road trips 🛣️
- Travelling abroad
- Living together 🏡
- Driving to different places
- Going to concerts 🕺
10. Keeping in touch can be difficult 🤳
Keeping in touch with friends as adults can be tough because we’re so busy with work, family, and other things.
Sometimes our friends live far away, which makes seeing them in person hard. 🗺️
Even though technology helps, it’s not the same as spending time together face-to-face.
Also, our lives might be in different places, so it can be tricky to find time that works for everyone. 📆
But making the effort to stay connected is worth it for keeping those friendships strong. 💪
11. We can feel lonely 💔
As adults, it’s really common to feel more lonely. 😟
Feeling lonely as adults can happen because of our busy lives, changes in our circumstances, and sometimes because of technology.
We might not have enough time to make meaningful connections, or changes like moving house or job shifts can disrupt our social circles. 🔁
While social media can help us stay connected, it can also make us feel disconnected from real human interactions. 📱
As adults, we can feel pressure to have our lives perfectly put together, which can also make it hard to reach out and form new friendships. 🤝
It’s important to recognize and address feelings of loneliness for our wellbeing. 💖
Conclusion 👍
So that’s it!
As adults friendships can change in ways like:
- We get new priorities 🏆
- We focus on the best🌟
- Distance grows 🗺️
- Our life stages change 🐣
- We need different support 💖
- Growing together 🪴
- Making new friends can get more difficult 😟
- Some friends drift apart 👎
- We can do more fun things with friends ✈️
- Keeping in touch can be difficult 🤳
- We can feel lonely 💔
Hopefully this article has helped you to understand more about how friendships change in adulthood.
If you know any friends or family members who might benefit from learning about how friendships change as adults, share this post with them!
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