There’s absolutely no doubt about it, it’s hard to make friends as you get older.
And it’s even harder if you don’t like to go to bars and throw back a few adult beverages.
But there’s still gotta be plenty of places to meet people, right?
AskReddit users talked about this. Let’s take a look.
1. Sports cards.
“I’m 35. In the last 10 years I can honestly say I have 1 or 2 friends that I’ve kept close contact with. I started getting back into collecting sports cards right before the pandemic hit.
Thru sharing my passion thru IG I have made probably at least 20 (online) friends and a few local friends now that I talk to every day and not just about our favorite hobby.”
2. Books books books!
“I’m part of a book club.
We meet online every month after reading a book and talk about it.
I was introduced by a friend.”
3. Very cool.
“I started inviting people from online dating sites who said they were looking for friends to play D&D.
Some of them were actually looking for friends. I also started a fencing group in my area and advertised it in relevant Facebook groups.
A few people showed up and now we occasionally do things that aren’t fencing-related.”
4. Gaming.
“Video games .
Just having a regular group of randoms in a server regularly is nice, I play a racing game and the others are typically all from other countries, but text chat is fun and its at least interaction with people I don’t live with.”
5. Meeting other parents.
“My kids’ sports.
Just hanging with the other parents or coaching teams. I don’t consider any of them to be FRIENDS, but we enjoy hanging out and shooting the breeze at games.
But once sports are over, I’ll never see them again, but if I run into them randomly, I’m sure we’ll chat for a minute – solid acquaintances.”
6. Right on!
“Volunteer!
I became a Girl Scout leader and have become friends with some of the other leaders & some of the parents from my troop.”
7. Good idea.
“Join a sports league.
You can join things like Kickball or Corn Hole leagues. Guys and girls play.
If they don’t have one in your area, maybe start one? Some people on Facebook started a Golf group for people who like to play golf in my area. I joined that one.”
8. Good on many levels.
“Brazilian Jui Jitsu.
I’ve been grappling for about 10 years now and I’ve formed some of the strongest friendships in that time.
It’s almost odd how quickly people bond while trying to str**gle each other.”
9. Check it out.
“I’m gonna add a very specific one: the app Slowly.
It’s an app who acts like a meeting app, except that everything works as if you were sending real letters. You can receive them from all over the world and 99% of people use it to make friends (over looking for a partner like most meeting apps).
You enter in your hobbies, maybe put in the countries, gender, age of the people you want to talk to (i left it open and received beautiful letters from aged people wanting to talk to someone), and there you go!
I have met my two best friends there, one from Germany and one from Brazil, we’ve been talking for years now. It’s too much work for scammers, so everyone is genuine. I can never not recommend it.”
10. Bike rides.
“Active sports.
My weekly bicycle ride is usually about 30 people. Easy and natural to make friends.”
11. That’ll work!
“If you’re around or in a city, walking a dog is the best conversation starter.
I had an Italian Greyhound years ago. When he was a puppy walking him in a city was like going places with a celebrity.
He had a little custom tailored sweatsuit cause regular sweaters don’t fit their chests.”
12. Classes are good.
“Go to a repeating class at a gym or yoga studio, and/or volunteer at a yoga studio or gym class.
Get a part time job or volunteer somewhere interesting to you and meet coworkers over time. Like a museum, community center, library, foreign language school, cultural center.”
13. From a pro.
“My turn to shine since I moved countries 3x as an adult. Ranked from most effective to least:
Work: never eat lunch alone, organize hang outs after work
Professional networking organizations: nothing bonds more than hating your industry/job together
Going out alone & chatting up strangers: woman here & have befriended men who approached me this way, so don’t say this won’t work for men. You just have to genuinely want to be friends instead of being a creeper. If you have kids & they have kids, they’ll WANT to be friends
Reddit: if someone in a niche subreddit you’re into happens to mention they live in your city, just go, “Hey! I live there too! Want to meet up?” The more niche the sub, the higher chance of making friends
Random fun classes/activities: if you’re both into it, you probably will click
Online dating: surprisingly made many good friends of this. Of course some were with benefits.
New mom groups: everyone is depressed to a certain degree, sleep deprived & desperate for support
Social media: made a few genuine friends, also got some creepers so it’s a gamble”
How do you think adults who don’t drink can meet new people?
Talk to us in the comments and let us know.
Please and thank you!
