Level: B2 (Upper-Intermediate)
Content Objective: Students will learn how American friendship patterns have shifted over the past three decades, and how digital communication may be connected to that change.
Language Objective: Students will practice the present perfect and present perfect continuous to describe long-term trends and ongoing changes.

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1. Reading Section

Has Social Media Made Us Lonelier?

Think about how many people you’ve texted today. Now think about how many you’ve actually spoken to, face-to-face, in the past week. For a lot of people, those two numbers look very different — and researchers have been asking why.

When platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok first appeared, many people assumed they would only strengthen our social lives. After all, we’ve never had more ways to stay in touch. Yet a growing body of research suggests something more complicated has been happening. Since the early 1990s, the number of close friendships Americans report having has fallen sharply, even as the number of ways to “connect” online has multiplied.

In 1990, a national survey found that a third of American adults had ten or more close friends, and only 3 percent said they had none at all. By 2021, according to the Survey Center on American Life, those numbers had flipped: just 13 percent of adults reported having ten or more close friends, while the share with no close friends at all had quadrupled to 12 percent. Best friendships have followed the same pattern — 75 percent of Americans said they had a best friend in 1990, compared with only 59 percent three decades later.

Communication habits have been shifting too. More than half of Americans say they’ve texted a friend within the past 24 hours, while far fewer report a phone call, and fewer still an in-person visit. Teenagers show the same pattern even more clearly: in one widely cited study, teens said they text with friends daily far more often than they see them in person.

Interestingly, social media hasn’t simply replaced old friendships with new online ones. Although nearly four in ten Americans say they have at least one friend they interact with only online, just 8 percent say they actually made a close friend that way. Most people, it turns out, have still been forming their deepest friendships offline — at work, at school, or through people they already know — even as they’ve been spending more and more time on their phones.

So has social media caused this decline, or has it simply been a symptom of bigger changes — busier work schedules, later marriages, more time spent raising children? Researchers haven’t reached a final answer yet. What does seem clear is that while we’ve been building bigger digital networks, many of us have been quietly losing the smaller, closer ones.

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2. Vocabulary Section

Word / Phrase	Meaning	Example
quadruple (v.)	to become four times as large	The share of Americans with no close friends has quadrupled since 1990.
sharply	suddenly and to a large degree	Close friendships have fallen sharply over the past three decades.
decline (n.)	a gradual decrease in quality or quantity	Researchers have been studying this decline for years.
symptom	a sign that shows an underlying problem exists	The trend might be a symptom of busier lifestyles.
offline	not connected to the internet; in the physical world	Most people still form close friendships offline.
multiply (v.)	to increase greatly in number	The ways we can connect online have multiplied.
widely cited	frequently referenced by others as a source	It’s one of the most widely cited surveys on this topic.
flip (v., informal)	to reverse completely	By 2021, those numbers had flipped.

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3. Example Sentences (Target Grammar in Use)

• Researchers have been asking why close friendships have declined so sharply.
• The share of Americans with no close friends has quadrupled since 1990.
• Communication habits have been shifting for years.
• Most people have still been forming their closest friendships offline.
• We have been building bigger digital networks, but smaller, closer ones have been shrinking.

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4. Grammar Section

Present Perfect vs. Present Perfect Continuous

We use the present perfect (has/have + past participle) to focus on a result or change itself — often a number, a completed shift, or something we’re summarizing as a whole. We use the present perfect continuous (has/have + been + verb-ing) to emphasize the duration or ongoing nature of an action — something still in progress, or repeated over time.

Tense	Form	Example	Focus
Present Perfect	has/have + past participle	The number of close friendships has fallen.	the result or change itself
Present Perfect Continuous	has/have + been + verb-ing	Researchers have been studying this trend for years.	the ongoing process or duration

Quick Tip: Use the present perfect for a clear result or number change (“has quadrupled,” “has fallen”). Use the present perfect continuous to emphasize that something is still happening or has been happening continuously over time (“have been asking,” “have been shifting”).

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5. Comprehension Questions

A. True or False

1. In 1990, only 3 percent of Americans reported having no close friends. (True / False)
2. The percentage of Americans with ten or more close friends has increased since 1990. (True / False)
3. More Americans report texting a friend daily than calling one. (True / False)
4. Most Americans who have online-only friends say those friends became their closest friends. (True / False)

B. Short Answer

5. How has the percentage of Americans with no close friends changed since 1990?
6. What happened to the percentage of Americans who say they have a best friend?
7. According to the passage, where do most people still form their closest friendships?
8. What question do researchers still not have a clear answer to?

C. Fill in the Blank (present perfect or present perfect continuous)

9. The number of Americans with no close friends ______ (quadruple) since 1990.
10. Researchers ______ (study) this trend for years, but they still don’t have a final answer.
11. Communication habits ______ (shift) as texting becomes more common than phone calls.
12. Many people ______ (build) bigger online networks while losing smaller, closer ones.

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Answer Key

Click here to check your answers

A. True or False

1. In 1990, only 3 percent of Americans reported having no close friends. — True
2. The percentage of Americans with ten or more close friends has increased since 1990. — False (it has decreased, from 33 percent in 1990 to 13 percent in 2021)
3. More Americans report texting a friend daily than calling one. — True
4. Most Americans who have online-only friends say those friends became their closest friends. — False (only 8 percent say they made a close friend online, even though many have online-only friends)

B. Short Answer

5. How has the percentage of Americans with no close friends changed since 1990? — It has quadrupled, rising from about 3 percent in 1990 to 12 percent in 2021.
6. What happened to the percentage of Americans who say they have a best friend? — It has fallen — from 75 percent in 1990 to 59 percent in 2021.
7. According to the passage, where do most people still form their closest friendships? — At work, at school, or through people they already know.
8. What question do researchers still not have a clear answer to? — Whether social media has actually caused the decline in friendships, or is just one symptom among several bigger social changes.

C. Fill in the Blank (present perfect or present perfect continuous)

9. The number of Americans with no close friends has quadrupled since 1990.
10. Researchers have been studying this trend for years, but they still don’t have a final answer.
11. Communication habits have been shifting as texting becomes more common than phone calls.
12. Many people have been building bigger online networks while losing smaller, closer ones.

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Source: Cox, Daniel A. “The State of American Friendship: Change, Challenges, and Loss.” The Survey Center on American Life, June 8, 2021.