how did you make friends?
Hi,
Wondering how people are making friends.
I'm usually too broke for things like friend speeding events, am usually the oldest person for those anyway, and also usually the oldest for things like group picnics or sports nights (usually stumbled upon in Instagram explore page), and when I tried volunteering a few times in the past, after asking other attendees if they wanted to do anything like get lunch or dinner together, it was usually crickets.
I think as I was at these events I tried to stay as 'neutral' and open as possible, like, just listening to others talk, or occasionally jumping in when shared interests lined up, so I don't think (but obviously can't ever really know since we don't always know how we come across to other people, and usually the social contract is to avoid being harsh to someone about their missed social cues unless they're being unnecessarily rude or offensive), so, am not sure why I'm unable to move past 'sharing space in short bursts of time' for events where everyone's a stranger' moments that would later translate into 'a nice planned time, intentionally hanging out.'
I've posted here in the past too trying to get people with a shared interest to hang out, and after a few texts asking if people were free, or asking to hangout during times they said they'd usually be free being no-gos, I just gave up.