Casual friendships are dying out — and we're all worse off for it

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Man surrounded by fragmented and cracked geometric shapes, each containing people inside
Casual friendships are key to our emotional lives, but these "fringe friends" are slowly disappearing.

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Nikol Moses felt the itch to head somewhere new.

It's hard to make friends in Palm Springs because, in my 50s, I'm one of the younger residents. Many retirees move here.

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Mid-century homes with palm trees in front of them and a mountain range behind them in Palm Springs, California.
Shelly Karpaty says she recently moved to Palm Springs, California, where most people are retired.

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My work wife and I got so close that she started sleeping at my house to shorten her commute. We stopped talking when she left the company.

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cartoon of two women high fiving
The author became close friends with her coworker.

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