In a desperate bid to cure the #male #loneliness epidemic, someone thought, "Why not make #friendship a #VIP #club experience?" 
You know, because nothing screams genuine connection like mandatory mixers and exclusive events that rival a corporate retreat. 
Welcome to #Wave3 #Social, where you too can pay for the privilege of pretending you have a #social #life. 
https://wave3.social #HackerNews #ngated
Taylor Swift Considers Blake Lively ‘Close Friend’ Despite Lawsuit Drama, Says ‘Source’ https://www.inbella.com/1073632/taylor-swift-considers-blake-lively-close-friend-despite-lawsuit-drama-says-source/ #CelebritiesTopics #friendship #JustinBaldoni #lively #RyanReynolds #TaylorSwift #TRAVISKELCE
Magazine special issue connects China, Italy across 70 years-Xinhua https://www.byteseu.com/1055821/ #China #friendship #Italy
New from Solzy at the Movies: Friendship Mixes Bromance and Toxicity in Cringe Comedy
https://solzyatthemovies.com/2025/05/27/friendship-bromance-toxicity/
Drifting away from your friends? Here are 10 questions to bring you closer https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/may/27/drifting-away-from-your-friends-here-are-10-questions-to-bring-you-closer #Lifeandstyle #Socialmedia #Friendship #Hobbies
I send thanks to the buyer from Nevada who purchased a framed print of
The Teal Umbrella -- https://2-steve-henderson.pixels.com/featured/the-teal-umbrella-steve-henderson.html?product=framed-print
May the artwork take you to a perfect summer day, one with good memories that form a foundation for new ones to be made today.
#summer #art #artwork #girl #cat #animal #nature #summertime, #mastoart #fediart #buyintoart #ayearforart #decor #sale #green #sun #innocence #teal #kitty #friends #friendship
One of my favorite interviews came with Actor Caroline Harris as we spoke of Midwest Values and her career in Hollywood. A read you won't want to miss!
#CarolineHarris #Actor #Chicago #Hollywood #SuperBowl #Northwestern #Bruh #TylerPerry #HollywoodFilms #Movies #Friendship #WritersCommunity @Writer
a snapshot of love
shattered like a broken glass
remembered too late
#mastoprompt = glass
#dailyhaikuprompt = snapshot
ART
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/like-cherished-flowers-sharon-cummings.html
Where Have All My Deep Male Friendships Gone? https://www.inbella.com/1066917/where-have-all-my-deep-male-friendships-gone/ #CrossFitInc #DatingAndRelationships #EntertainmentNews #exercise #friendship #Joe #loneliness #MenAndBoys #parenting #Parties(Social) #podcasts #Rogan #SocialMedia #WritingAndWriters
" We say we are committed to #decentralization - but are we committed to each other?" 
- #Freeschool (#friendly #Fediverse hashtag)
Let's go towards: #friendship / #friends / #friendships online
I have a friend who is off to the Southern Highlands for a week. She is staying with her twin brother to celebrate their shared birthday with other family members. Today I have, in the spirit of friendship, filled up her phone with new audiobooks. To listen to on the bus (while ignoring strangers) but also for her peace of mind (to block out her twin) when her brother starts spouting his usual crapfest of conspiracy theories.
#Family #Friendship #SurvivalTools
Have you heard? #SesameStreet will soon be streaming on #Netflix .
( #HootinTootinTuesday is a day late this week. My apologies.)
Outback sewing classes help migrants learn English and find friendship
By Maddie Nixon
A group of women in the outback are meeting up over a cuppa to learn how to sew and speak English.
Estou atrás de amigos por aqui. De preferência que gostem de jogos e animes.
I'm behind friends around here. Preferably you like games and anime.
A reluctant (and partial) defence of Mark Zuckerberg’s claims about AI friends
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y76n7Om3wUs
I’m in full agreement this is a bleak vision of the future, but I also think we need to grapple with the plausibility of what he’s describing here:
I think there a lot of these things that today there might be a little bit of a stigma around. I would guess that over time we will find the vocabulary as a society to be able to articulate why that is valuable and why the people that are doing these things … why they are rational for doing it and how it is adding value to their lives.
Even recognising the hyperstitional effects which come from the world’s third richest man making these claims*, it’s seems obviously true there will be a shift in vocabulary emerging from user cultures which grow up around these services. The metaverse provides a great example of how these effects can be overstated. Power isn’t sufficient to bring about these effects. It’s a bleak vision but I don’t think the sociotechnical trend is reducible to the corporate project of Meta, even if what’s particularly unsettling is how it’s being propounded by a man who has overseen the rise to global dominance of software which claimed to ‘connect the world’. Instead we now confront a situation with much greater loneliness than ever before, raising the question of how these developments will fold back into social media.
In this post Punya Mishra & Melissa Warr argue against framing this as a matter of individual choice, not just to analyse the trend but to establish normative responses to it:
Some may claim they can avoid becoming prey to these tactics through how they choose to interact with AI, but framing this as an individual choice misses the point. Even those who personally refuse to engage with AI companions at all will live in a world shaped by them. We need to recognize that personal abstention does not create a bubble untouched by the larger societal shifts these technologies unleash. A world of unregulated AI companions will be akin to social media on steroids: more addictive, more intrusive, more capable of reshaping identities, aspirations, and relationships. And whether or not we engage with these forms of AI, our socio-political ecosystems will be influenced by it. And we will be living in a world that intentionally, ruthlessly and systematically exploits our need for connection, validation, and intimacy.
There’s already prima facie grounds for believing that personal-life uses of LLMs may be becoming the dominant category, even if there are grounds for being slightly cautious about the methodology of this HBR research:
It’s worth reading this piece in full because it’s very informative about the expanding range of ways in which people are using the platform.
Birds make friends too, 20-year study finds
https://newatlas.com/biology/birds-friend-behavior/
The only complex "friend-like" relationship seen in vertebrates is known as cooperative breeding, in which two individuals assist in raising the young. Yet, for African starlings, the bonds they form go far beyond mere parenting duties.
I find that my life moves in spiral patterns. I'll be fascinated with a particular topic and that will lead me to another then to another and at some point I spiral back around to the original topic but at a whole new level of understanding. I've been like this my whole life and I quite enjoy it.
It happens with friendships also, sometimes. You know how they say: when the student is ready the teacher will appear. It's also true for friends. When I spiral back to a particular interest, the appropriate friend will generally appear to enhance whatever I am thinking about.
I reconnected today with a friend who I haven't spoken to in quite a long time and we picked up easily and joyfully. I'm grateful.
rk & Friendship! 
Cute & Funny Animals 
