I audited my friendships recently and made an uncomfortable discovery. A solid half of them have had no real conversation in months. No calls, no texts, no "hey how are you." The entire relationship is now maintained through one single ritual: liking each other's Instagram stories.
That's it. That's the friendship. A story goes up, the little heart gets tapped, and that's our whole communication for the week.
And weirdly, it doesn't feel cold. It's just... efficient. We both still care. We both know we still care. There's an unspoken understanding that the like isn't nothing - it means "I saw you, I'm still here, we're still good."
It's basically the modern version of catching a friend's eye across a crowded room and giving them a small nod. A quiet "I see you." Except the crowded room is a phone screen, the nod is a double-tap, and it happens at 1am while we're both lying in bed refusing to sleep.
No words exchanged. No plans made. Just two people orbiting each other's lives from a comfortable distance, tapping hearts, keeping the connection technically alive.
Is it a real friendship? Genuinely unsure. But the like keeps arriving, from both sides, month after month. And maybe that quiet consistency is its own kind of loyalty. We don't talk. But we never quite disappear either.