I assume a similar effect might happen if you had a official place made explicitly for the purpose of finding friends
This shook loose a memory of my primary school trying to institute exactly that; a bench adjacent to the playground with signage declaring it to be a “find-a-friend bus stop” (may not have been the exact wording), with the idea of it being a rallying point to link up with some other loner and go play together.
Crazy homeless drunks thankfully weren’t a problem. But even at a young age I think we were able to instinctively recognise that there could be nothing more tragic than to be sat visibly alone on the “got no friends” bench, so I don’t think it saw much use.
Might have occasionally been made part of a game, where we tried to push each other into sitting on the bench, on the basis that sitting there was for losers. But I’m not 100% confident of whether that’s a real memory.
Either way I have to assume the organiser behind that idea either didn’t really think it through all the way, or had an overly optimistic take as to how merciless/vicious kids can be.
This shook loose a memory of my primary school trying to institute exactly that; a bench adjacent to the playground with signage declaring it to be a “find-a-friend bus stop” (may not have been the exact wording), with the idea of it being a rallying point to link up with some other loner and go play together.
Crazy homeless drunks thankfully weren’t a problem. But even at a young age I think we were able to instinctively recognise that there could be nothing more tragic than to be sat visibly alone on the “got no friends” bench, so I don’t think it saw much use.
Might have occasionally been made part of a game, where we tried to push each other into sitting on the bench, on the basis that sitting there was for losers. But I’m not 100% confident of whether that’s a real memory.
Either way I have to assume the organiser behind that idea either didn’t really think it through all the way, or had an overly optimistic take as to how merciless/vicious kids can be.