Which Relationships Survived the Pandemic and Which Didn’t?

KEY POINTS

• The pandemic is lightening, and people are reevaluating their relationships to intimate others and casual friends.
• We start pruning our friendships in our 30s, keeping the most important ones.
• The young and old deal with relationship conflict differently. The young confront it; their elders mostly ignore it.

“Have you gotten your vaccine yet?” has lately replaced “How are you?” among the people I text, talk to, see when I walk the dog…