I air dry most of my clothes. I do use a washing machine however. I only use cold water, unless my clothes are actually tarnished.

Washing clothes defnetely damages your clothes. If you want your clothes to last as long as possible only wash them when they need them not just because you've worn them for a day. Also you can air them out instead of washing them to reduce the amount of wash cycles.

There's no doubt that it's more wear and tear on your clothes.

Like if I put on a pair of shorts I'm probably going to sit around in them for most of the day and then take them off before bed. Several hours in the drier where it's hot and they're rubbing around on everything is surely going to be the equivalent of many days worth of "wearing them".

What do you suppose you're removing from the lint trap?

Yes, I once lived in an apartment where the dryer would sometimes snag my clothes on the edge of the spinning part and they would get these spots at the point where they got caught that were stained black and stretched out or ripped.

Have you ever cleaned out a lint trap? All that lint used to be part of the clothes.

By rules of physics it will damage it. Its rubbing against other clothes, its getting blasted with heat and it's getting folded/bended over and over.
Damage is dependent on the material, but dor sure it wears them down.

Its the heat, mostly. If you use the low or very low/delicate settings, it will help.

I find that there is no benefit from using medium or high heat. It just shrinks my clothes. Low/delicate doesn't and I haven't noticed any damage.

Other trick: wash and dry pants inside out to avoid fading. Also, this stuff only applies to fabrics that are dryer safe, obviously

It probably has never been researched because it is obvious?

It depends on the fabric. A lot of synthetic clothes are now made to do well in the dryer. But if it's 100% cotton, it can be permanently ruined in the first dry.

I mean literally the same machine as a rock grinder, generated heat and tumbling items smacking into each other.

But like they are soft. And if you don't use as much heat it is even gentler, which is why the driers that act as a dehumidifier without heat are even better better.

The way I've seen people around me use the dryer, for sure. High heat will ruin clothes more than anything else, especially if it continues to run after everything had dried out.

Back in university, we had timed dryers that could only do either high heat or tumble dry low for an hour. Rooms were too humid and cramped to air dry. Of course, I wasn't going to spend more money waiting for low heat to do its work. Clothes came out bone dry and metal zippers scalding hot. Only the large towels held up, everything else noticeably faded and thinned over a couple years.

Night and day difference once I got my own place with a condenser dryer. It takes longer, but everything is just dry enough at the end of each cycle. It's also a bit smaller so I have to air dry parts of larger loads, but either way, my clothes have held up much better ever since.

It's got to. It doesn't happen very often, but I have had pants go in fine and come out of the dryer with holes. Of course, they were a few years old, but still....

Always follow the instructions on the label in case it’s hang-dry only, dry everything on low, turn your jeans inside-out, and never use fabric sheets (wool dryer balls work almost as well without the chemicals).

I think it depends. I'm my experience, towels last longer if they get thrown in the dryer. Wouldn't throw my cashmere sweater in there though, if I owned one. The quality of the clothes you own plays a part. And most of us tend to go for the bargain over quality.

I feel like this depends on your climate as well. If you have sufficient sunlight outside, why do you even have a dryer? If it's humid and stuff takes forever to dry on its own, a dryer might prevent certain bacteria to build up in the fabric and thus expand longevity. Although any act of aggressively drenching the fabric in water and chemicals and then blow drying it ought to age it by default.

Yeah, but only on a decade scale. There's friction involved, there's going to be some damage. If a tumble dryer--on low--manages to wreck a garment, it's probably been dodging stains and tears for a very long time.

That said, graphic tees can be notably damaged by driers running on full power. Their dryer-resistance (and longevity in general) depends on the quality of the appliqué, the underlying garment, and the initial application equipment.