How long should a hang out with friends last it’s a tricky question since there are different types of hangouts, and not all of them are the same that doesn’t mean that if it’s short, it’s worse than the longer hangouts.
In this article, I will list a few things that you should consider when you hang out with friends and how much time you should expect to spend in different situations.
How long do people hang out with friends?
From what I noticed, people spend around 2 hours when they hang out with friends if there is not particular reason for that hang out other than a regular check-up.
Those two hours can simply become more than 4-5 hours if you add something to do other than just talking, something like a board game, watching a movie at someone’s home, a bbq, or something along this line. I will discuss this in more detail in the list below.
Of course, there are overnight hangouts, but I will not talk about those in this article.
We will see next why how long it should or does hang out last is not as straightforward as it seems, but I will try to do my best to explain what can influence the time you spend with your friends and what that means.
4 Things to consider when it comes to how long a hang out with friends lasts
Here are a few things I consider important, and they always affect how much time we spend with our friends.
1. How close you are
Obviously, not all friends are the same, and this can impact a lot on how much you want to spend time with them. There is a wide range of friendships, from casual friends to intimate friends, or as many people know them, best friends.
When it comes to casual friends, you usually have surface-level discussions with them and maybe just a bit of personal stuff, but not too much since they are not your best friends. It is almost impossible to spend a lot of time with those friends while with close or best friends, you might end up not noticing how the time has passed.
That being said, I noticed that if you play board games or something that shifts the focus from the actual conversation, you might spend a bit more time when you hang out, even if they are not your best friends.
Read Also: Is Talking Too Much A Weakness?
2. Life stage – other responsibilities
When you have the entire day off after high school or college, and you don’t have any other responsibilities, you might want to spend all this time with your friends and that is why we make friends easily in high school and college, but it gets harder to make friends in our 20s or 30s.
I have an interesting article about how often friends should text each other, which is also impacted by your life stage.
3. Day of the week
This might seem silly, but we sometimes end up not noticing that a hang out was shorter because it is a weekday, not a weekend. This is important at almost any point in life since we have school or work most of the time from Monday to Friday.
I noticed this with my friends, my wife and I are bloggers, so we don’t have a set schedule, but we can’t hang out with friends for too long if it’s not the weekend. So, we ended up setting a schedule for us like many other people with regular jobs, which gives us free time at the same time as them, so we ended up hanging out with them more often and more time.
We rely on the society around us even if we don’t want to, so we better don’t fight this.
4. What are you doing when you hang out?
This is the last, but it is maybe the most important one. As I said before, if you have a bbq or play some board games, there is a real chance that you will spend several hours together and not just one or two.
Also, having a few drinks with friends also helps, people usually talk more when they have some drinks, I’m not saying this is a good thing, but it is what it is.
The drinks make a big difference when it comes to hanging out in a bar compared to a restaurant. If we go out to eat something, we usually stay one or two hours, we don’t wait long after we eat to ask for the check. But when it comes to a bar, no one knows when we stop, it might be one beer, it might be seven beers. We don’t have a set number, so we might spend half of the day there and talk about all kinds of things.
Should you stay more or less with friends?
If you spend more time with friends when you hang out, that doesn’t mean that it is better. In my experience, most of the time, it is better, but not always.
I had times when we stayed way more than I wanted for different reasons, rather they would not realize that I was bored, but I didn’t tell them. Because, to be honest, sometimes it is hard to send someone home, especially if they have a good time.
Also, there were times when we were bored and tired, but no one would leave, so we ended up staying a few more hours than necessary.
So quantity doesn’t equal quality, however, if you can’t spend more than two hours with a person, that is not a good sign for a friendship. I understand that sometimes it might be due to the circumstances, but if you never spend more time and don’t feel like you could, that is a sign that you are not so close to those friends.
The friends that you feel like you could spend five or more hours with when you hang out without being overwhelmed or getting bored are rare, and you should pay more attention to that friendship.
There is some exception since some people are interesting and they know how to entertain a group or another person, that doesn’t necessarily make them your best friends.
Read Also: All About Power Dynamics In Friendships
Conclusion
If you can spend more time with friends and you feel like that is getting you closer, and you have an easy time opening up to them, that is a good sign for your friendship.
A friendship is not based on quantity necessarily, but it is rare to get really close to someone you can’t spend time with.
So how long do you hang out with your friends matters most of the time and you should pay attention to this aspect when it comes to a friendship. If you want to spend more time with friends, have a plan about what you want to do when you hang out with them before asking them to hang out with you.
