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Who Americans Spend Their Time With (theatlas.com)

Data scientist Henrik Lindberg has a series of fascinating charts based on data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics that show who people in the United States spend their time with over the course of their lifetime. Check out the charts here. From a report on Quartz: Some of the relationships Lindberg found are intuitive. Time with friends drops off abruptly in the mid-30s, just as time spent with children peaks. Around the age of 60 -- nearing and then entering retirement, for many -- people stop hanging out with co-workers as much, and start spending more time with partners. Others are more surprising. Hours spent in the company of children, friends, and extended family members all plateau by our mid-50s. And from the age of 40 until death, we spend an ever-increasing amount of time alone. Those findings are consistent with research showing that the number of friends we have peaks around age 25, and plateaus between the ages of 45 and 55. Simply having fewer social connections doesn't necessarily equal loneliness. The Stanford University psychologist Linda Carstensen has found that emotional regulation improves with age, so that people derive more satisfaction from the relationships they have, whatever the number. Older people also report less stress and more happiness than younger people.

3 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Cow orkers by TWX · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is why I don't really want to hang-out with coworkers after the workday is over. I spend eight hours a day with you, and despite this industry attracting a lot of geeks we don't really have a whole lot in-common. Why would I want to spend even more time with you when I could spend it with people that share common interests?

    I do the occasional happy-hour, but there's a surprising number of rabid sports fans in the office despite most of them never having played a sport since young childhood, and I don't like hanging-out with people that refer to their favorite out-of-state sports team as, "we," when discussing their trumphs and tribulations.

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    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
  2. Re:I spent my time with Muslims by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    until I got beheaded. Servers me right I guess.

    +1 Underrated

  3. Re:Cow orkers by TWX · · Score: 3, Informative

    You might want to try to go over to those real-friends' homes to hang out. When you're married and especially if you have children you might not have a lot of time to spend out-and-about. You may be limited to having a beer or two with friends over an hour or two while you shoot the shit out in the garage before you have to go back in and be responsible again.

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    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.