“Leave me alone”

Flowing Data has a great graph showing who we spend our time with as we get older.

As you might guess, we spend more time with our parents in the early years. As we get older, we spend more time with friends in high school and co-workers in the working years.

The part that was shocking to me is the time we spend alone the older we get. Presumably, we have more time and yet we spend it less with others. People are retired, they are not going to the office, there are no bosses or customers, and the kids have moved on–perhaps there is less opportunity.

It says a lot about our culture and how we value our elders.