Woman Explains The Underrated Importance Of Having Couch Friends
Sometimes the friends that you can do absolutely nothing with are the best ones to have.
Monkey Business Images | Shutterstock With our country's shaky state and all the turmoil happening both on our own soil and abroad, many people are adamant about having a strong sense of community to combat feelings of helplessness. Unfortunately, too many people are part of the loneliness epidemic, so having loved ones should be our priority.
In a TikTok video, a content creator named Megan Sherer insisted that to truly feel connected with others, you need to have couch friends — the types of friends that you can just sit around with and enjoy each other's company without the feeling of pressure to do something.
The woman explained why having couch friends is so important.
"Something that I wholeheartedly believe would change everybody's life is having a couple of solid couch friends," Sherer insisted in her video. "Couch friends are the ones who show up at your house, or you show up at theirs, and you can just sit on the couch and do nothing or anything together."
The woman explained how important it is to remember the value of doing absolutely nothing.
In a time when being productive and having hobbies/interests is something everyone feels they need in order to reach some arbitrary measure of success, it's refreshing to know that there's also value in doing absolutely nothing, especially with your friends.
Of course, there's nothing wrong with doing activities with the people in your life, whether that's attending a workout class together, pottery painting, or seeing a movie, but there's also something special about having friends that you can just rot on the couch with as well.
"Couch friends are the ones that you don't always need a planned activity," Sherer continued. "Like, we're gonna meet for coffee at this time and go on a walk, or we're gonna go take this class, or we're gonna work out together or, like, go to the movies. Couch friends are the ones who you can sit in absolute silence with."
Sherer explained that couch friends are comforting to your nervous system. It's not that couch friends are people that you don't put effort into, but that there's an ease in the friendship. It's the friend you can text an hour before and schedule a hangout or the friend that you can just hang out with without having to constantly think about conversation-starters.
Many Americans have admitted that they have varying numbers of close friends in their lives.
According to an October 2023 survey from the Pew Research Center, a narrow majority of adults (53%) say they have between one and four close friends, while a significant share (38%) say they have five or more. Some 8% say they have no close friends.
There's also a difference in close friends between the genders. Half of men and 55% of women say they have between one and four close friends, while 40% of men and 36% of women say they have five or more close friends. However, we're also in the midst of a loneliness epidemic, where a number of people are feeling quite isolated and alone in their lives.
A 2024 American Psychiatric Association survey found that 30% of Americans aged 18 to 34 said they were lonely at least several times a week. The 2023 University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging found that 37% of U.S. adults aged 50 to 80 reported a lack of companionship over the last year.
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Feeling alone can take a really serious toll on one's mental health and overall well-being. If anything, platonic love and connection are just, if not more important than romantic love. Your friends are there for you in ways that a significant other can sometimes never be, and whether or not you have an abundance of couch friends or not, there's definitely nothing wrong with the friendships that come with ease.
"When we have those kind of people in close proximity, and I mean walking or driving distance, it has a massive impact on your overall quality and mental health," Sherer insisted.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.