Friendships Aren't Just a Tally

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i wanted to better understand how my friends make me feel. i have nine super close friends, which is weigh more than this dunbar average of five. So why do i still feel lonelier in london than i did in new york? Well the answer might be in my lower teer of good friends. I am so pressed cavalry in london, i don't have enough of the fun friends. And if you did your own friendship mapping, when you look at your drawing, are seeing what you need in life? Do you think that changing friendships is just a natural part of life? Or maybe i just needed to trust that i will always have eight or nine close friends

Time with friends just isn’t the same with a screen in between you. That’s a struggle many have faced recently, with half of Americans saying they’ve lost touch with at least one friend during the pandemic. It can be sad, but is falling out of touch with friends normal? How many relationships should we maintain, and what are the different kinds of friendships we need anyways? Evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar has been studying social relationships for 50 years, and he has answers. Data journalist Mona Chalabi maps out her own relationships against the averages, and invites us to do the same. This is an episode of Am I Normal? with Mona Chalabi, another podcast from the TED Audio Collective. You can find and follow it wherever you're listening to this. To learn more about "How to Be a Better Human," host Chris Duffy, or find footnotes and additional resources, please visit: go.ted.com/betterhuman