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Comment by MichaelCrawford | Hacker News Reader

If this has been a persistent problem, I suggest group therapy.

I am absolutely serious. I spent years in group therapy, it did me a world of good.

Before I started therapy I came very close to leaping off the top of a six-storey building. Now I'm quite happy, and have lots of friends.

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Hi, don't worry, I'm not going to jump off the bridge. I just want to know the theoretical limits of coding friendship. Despite all this "social" technology, more people claim they are more lonely than ever. This looks like a market opportunity. Once again: Can friendship be coded?

Among the reasons I ride the bus and light rail, is that doing so gives me the opportunity to meet new people.

That mostly works, but quite commonly, other commuters are staring at their mobile devices, or listening to them. The only new friends I meet, are people who choose not to befriend their gadgets.

My Mom likes her email, but back in the day she used to talk to people on the phone.

There's a lot more to human companionship than what the words in text say. Body language, for example. You don't get any of that from an email.

One can identify groups of persons more likely to befriend one another if one can identify shared interests, so to that extent Yes. But those persons must come in contact with one another, and of course not all of them will get along. There exist a lot of mechanisms for bringing together persons of shared interests: churches, schools, sports, concerts, bars, museums, for that matter workplaces.

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