I find it disappointing when articles like this don't even consider biological, evolutionary factors that could play a role.
It's like ignoring the possibility economic factors in trying to explain some feature of society.
It should not be necessary to propose specific possible factors to make such a criticism.
Since so many people seem to want a possible account, there might be an evolutionary advantage to gaining friends leading up to and during prime reproductive years, advantages that are lesser as you transition past those ages.
Just like our brains are more receptive to learning languages when we're younger our younger brains may be more receptive to developing friendships. Note that I've said right from the start that such details could be factors in an explanation, not that they would be the whole explanation.
Also, I've repeatedly said that biological and evolutionary details may be factors not the whole explanation, so other factors can have changed during that timeframe.
Considering the evolutionary argument, what happens is the opposite of what one would expect - when people are getting old they are more in need of friends for practical reasons - failing physical condition. So if there is an evolutionary reason, it's probably a paradox.
It may be true however that people seek more alone time as they get older - our brains become less excitable, less craving of novel environments and people and information etc. That's a behavior that's related to aging however, not evolution.
Re: evolutionary argument. That's not what one would expect. That's simply your assumption based on a simplistic notion of what an evolutionary explanation would involve.
Re: your final paragraph, that shows you haven't been paying attention to what I've been saying. If you read my comments you'll notice I've said "biological or evolutionary", and aging is most definitely biological. Anyway, you're wrong to assume that has nothing to do with evolution!
Perhaps it would help your argument if you provided counterarguments to others instead of just dismissing them. Pretending to speak from authority weakens your position.
Re: counterarguments - or how about you don't make confident assertions about topics you're clearly lacking a solid grounding in (for example, your comment shows you don't understand that evolution operates on the level of genes rather than individuals) -- where you must know you're lacking that grounding -- and go and learn a bit more about it yourself rather than demanding that others provide you that education? I'm sure you wouldn't behave in this sort of way if it was some other topic, like something to do with computing.
It is possible that evolution might have made it so that older people do not have friends, so they die sooner and thus consume less resources from prime-age people. The older people are past their child-making age, so they can't affect future evolution in their favour. It's odd however that people did not complain about this until the latter half of the 20th century , or that men did not escape this fate (since men can have children even at old age).
i do not back this up with any evidence though, since you 'd dismiss it as irrelevant anyway.
Other parts of your really basic lack of understand of it is also demonstrated by your latest comment:
- thinking that evolution works as if it had intention and foresight.
- thinking that being past child-making age can't affect "future evolution in their favour" (this is a variation on the misunderstanding that evolution operates on individuals rather than genes).
There's nothing wrong with being ignorant about a topic, but there is with being so and acting like you know what you're taking about.
I dont care if you keep insulting me to make your point, but for the sake of conversation, dont assume your assumptions are correct
And BTW, this new comment of yours represents another elementary misunderstanding of evolution, that of assuming group selection (despite some contested arguments for specific cases of purported group selection, no one agrees with such naive group selection).
The reason you're being down-voted is because liberalism believes in a clean slate for human beings. Heritable genetic traits that provide advantages or disadvantages goes against this model.
"I'm super progressive"
Until
"I have a downvote button now motherfuckers"
These perceptions are in the eye of the beholder. Multiply that 10x when it's about "who downvoted me", since there's literally no information then, just a blank screen to project on.
We're open minded enough, just bring up some actual arguments and facts to support them.