Meeting New People As An Adult
How do adults make friends? This is a question we all ask ourselves after graduating from high school and/or college. Once we’re out in “the real world,” we have to figure out how to make friends. This is hard when we aren’t forced on top of other peers our age for the majority of the day.
Adulting is tough and making friends isn’t any easier. But to help you readers out, here’s three ideas for how to make a new friend (or two!).
Join A Group/League/Organization
The first idea is to go out there and seize the day (and a friend) by joining a group. A basic understanding of life is that if you go out and live it, you’ll eventually make a friend. Your chances get even better if you go out and do something social where other people will be.
To enact this idea, first think of an activity you want to do. Are you looking for a way to exercise? Consider joining a gym or joining a sports league. There are plenty of people to talk to in athletic settings. Or perhaps, you wish to do something geeky like join a D&D table. Find a local comic shop that holds weekly or monthly games. Or maybe, you’re looking to commit to social activism. Pick a cause you stand by and google organizations that connect with that cause. Then, join a meeting.
There are plenty of options out there for you to not only be social and meet new potential friends, but also just enjoy your life. The key here is to find the activities that would enrich your life and personal happiness. Then you’ll find that in most cases, there are other human beings out there enjoying the same things. Go meet them.
Try An App
But maybe you want to play it a little safer. Maybe you’re afraid of putting yourself out there. Then, you could turn to digital meeting spaces to help.
There is a myriad of options for meeting and connecting with people on digital spaces. Most of the typical social media apps are places to connect digitally. People connect on Twitter every day, people like and follow others on Instagram constantly, and Facebook is all about laughing at the latest meme.
That said, social media apps can get pretty lonely and mentally/emotionally toxic. So, there are other avenues to try. You could attempt forum sites like Discord or Reddit. Just find a topic and space that connects with you (sort of like the organization suggestion above) and connect with like-minded fellows. Or, try apps that work like dating apps but focus on friendship. Bumble has a BFF feature that allows people to focus on finding friends and not dates. Or, you could try other apps like Friender, The League, or RealU.
Just keep in mind, people are often not their true and authentic selves while online. There’s a lot of filters and putting best faces forward on public profiles. So while you can easily make friends online, there is still an importance in making friends in person.
Connect With Friends Of A Friend
With that in mind, maybe it’s better to look for friends a little closer to home. If you already have a firend or two, there’s a good chance they have a friend or two also. Why not see if that other friend or two could be your friend… too.
The “mutual friends” tag on Facebook is a feature for a reason. There’s safety in what is known and having a mutual friend already shows a level of connection with a stranger. If you both like that silly roommate of yours, there’s a good chance the new potential friend is silly and fun as well. Trying to connect with a friend of a friend is an easy and safer way than trying to connect with strangers. It’s a solid safety net.
Making Friends
Making friends as adults is hard. We have to step out of our comfort zones now that our immediate areas aren’t automatically pushing us together with a large pool of potential friends. That said, putting in the extra effort will be worthwhile when you’ve found that new friend or two to call your own. And having great people around you is truly one of the purest gifts of this world.
