Friendship

How many times do you contact a friend and get no reply before you sadly acknowledge this friendship, spanning decades, has reached its end?
 
Yes, it happened to me recently. Yes I could do text but she is of an age that doesn’t do text and only reluctantly uses a computer for her email. Yes I could pick up the phone but nowadays ringing someone up out of the blue seems obtrusive. So I do nothing.
 
And I have discovered I am not alone in this. The Americans have coined a new word in their lexicon called “ friendship recession”. It all started before Covid, which simply accelerated the progress.  A psychologist writing in the Guardian recently called it “ learned loneliness” and in London some are seeking “ friend therapy”.
 
I thought of this when asked to submit, as part of our local arts collective GOSSIP, some work for an exhibition. 
 “Friendship” is a digital image I created using an AI  ( artificial intelligence ) tool.
 
Appropriately enough the exhibition is in Scion House, part of Stirling University Innovation Park.

Link: Guardian article