I think it's not only this, but that the process repeats over and over. I had very deep relationships in high school, forged new ones in college, then both of those ended. I moved to a new city where I started a new job with a bunch of other people in their mid-20's, and we formed yet another community. Then the company laid off or required everyone to move to a new city. New job, same story again. I still start up new friendships at work, but it feels less and less worth it each time and so I try a little less hard year by year, because you're working against impersonal forces that will upend your social structures on a whim, and it feels like a treadmill to try to keep them intact.

I've begun thinking in that direction too, after seeing how my peers have been moving all over the country in the last few years - first for uni, then for a job, then another job... I'm one of the movers myself, and I know why I moved, but I feel the cost of lost relationships quite heavily.

Americans move less than they ever have these days: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/20/us/american-workers-movin...

Few, and increasingly fewer, move far from where they were born.

Why do the outliers who do move around become a huge driving factor for the larger population here?

Why does the decline in the driving force bring an apparent increase in the effects?

I recently moved. Most of my new friends aren't from here, they came here for work, but they consider it their own city now and are part of the community.

It's different in a "commuter city" like San Francisco. That means the majority of people don't even live there during the day, and even their job might be temporary. Unfortunately most are there to make money, not friends.

That has only been declining while youth mental health got worse.