Making Friends As An Adult

Making friends as an adult!

In the world we live in, it can be difficult to make friends. We are so dependent on the Internet to connect with others, I feel like we’ve forgotten how to interact with people offline. And especially as an adult when social circles get tighter, and the willingness to meet new people is lower for many. With that in mind, you might think it’s impossible to make new friends as an adult.

And even before the rise of the Internet and social media, it always felt like once you past your 20s, it becomes insanely hard to meet new friends. In some ways it is true. Meeting people in college and university is a lot easier than when you’re working 40 hours a week with no easy social opportunities.

But as someone who has organized many social groups over my adult years, I can tell you that making friends as an adult is NOT impossible. In fact, there are so many ways to do so, I wanted to share them all with you today.

In this post, when making friends as an adult, I’ll go over 10 ways you can do so. It doesn’t matter if you’re an introvert or extrovert; I say anyone can use these methods to meet new friends. These are all diverse, so you don’t have to try them all (unless you want to).

Without further ado let’s get started!

1. What are your hobbies?

The first place I would start if you’re looking for new friends; ask yourself what are your hobbies? You probably have some stuff that interests you, whether it’s dancing, video games or hiking.

This is the best place to start as it will be easier to meet and socialize with people who are into the same things as you are. For example, I’m really into traveling and hiking, so I would find it easier to talk to people who have been traveling, and I can share my travel stories that these people can relate to. However, if I joined a group about fashion, I would have a more difficult time meeting and socializing with people because I don’t know much about fashion. So while you don’t have to have everything in common with someone (they do say opposites attract after all), it makes things a lot easier if you have some commonality.

So that’s the first thing you should do; identify your hobbies and work from there. After you do, it’s time to move onto the next thing:

2. Find hobby groups that interests you.

Unless you live in the middle of nowhere, there will be tons of different hobby groups in big cities! And if you do live in a rural area, you can always commute down to your local city near you to find groups that will cater to you.

Once you establish what your hobbies and interests are, try to find ways to meet up with people who are into the same things. For example, if you’re into video games, a good place to look is a popular video game store that hosts tournaments for games. Or if you’re into parks and hiking, you will likely find groups that take part in walking in the park on a weekly or monthly basis.

If you’re having problems finding a group near you, then you can…

3. Join a Meetup group!

I have been a guest AND an event organizer host for Meetup.com for several years now. And while I would say that the popularity of the site isn’t as big as it was back then, it’s still a reliable and great way to meet new people in your area based on your interests.

Meetup makes it so easy to join hobby-based groups. For example, if you’re into trading card games, you can literally search that into Meetup and it will find existing groups that are exactly or similar to those types of hobbies.

Even if you can’t find a hobby, there are many wonderful general groups out there on Meetup that hosts events at bars, cafes and restaurants. I’ve attended several of these events myself and found them a great way to connect with people. Even if you’re shy, a lot of Meetup organizers will make it easy to “break the ice” with people.

And if you don’t see a group that fits your mold, then you can always start your own Meetup group! It may sound intimidating, but believe me, it’s a lot easier than you think. In the future, I’ll make a post about hosting your group to make new friends. But I’ve hosted many events for a long time and I have met so many great people this way.

So if you need an easy way to find a group, Meetup is honestly a wonderful method to do so.

4. Take classes in the hobbies you’re interested in.

With a lot of hobbies, you’ll find that you’ll need to take courses. While of course you should focus on learning whatever it is you’re trying to achieve, at the same time this is also an opportunity to meet new friends.

For example, when I was taking French classes, I kept in touch with my classmates who were doing the same homework as I was. While I didn’t become close friends with them, it just shows how much easier it is to meet new people who are on similar journeys as you.

There are so many other examples where you have social opportunities while learning a new hobby, including:

• Dance classes
• Music lessons
• Night school or part-time courses
• Martial arts
• Educational lectures (after the lecture of course)
• Group gym classes
• Yoga

So if you’ve been putting off that hobby that you’ve been meaning to learn for a long time, then now may be a good opportunity to tackle two things at once; learn a new hobby AND meet some new friends as an adult!

5. Facebook.

Believe it or not, Facebook is another wonderful way to meet new friends as an adult. Now before we get started, I am not telling you to randomly message people on the network. That would get you suspended or even banned on Facebook pretty quickly.

Instead, there are many Facebook groups that you can join with people that have similar interests as you. There have been so many helpful groups I’ve joined on Facebook, and a lot of them are older adults like me who are into the same interests and topics as I am.

Another useful tool for Facebook is being able to host events, similar to Meetup! I myself have used Facebook not only to advertise my own events, but to also find events from other people that I’m interested in. You’ll easily meet people at the event who share a common personality with you, and also attract people to your own events that want to be part of your group. I have met tons of cool adults in my hobby using Facebook.

Another aspect of Facebook = your friend’s list. Chances are, you probably have friends on your list that you haven’t talked to in years. Perhaps they’re in the same boat as you are; they’re looking for friends to connect with. Of course, it’s best to message them first and feel out if there’s still a friendship connection between you two. But if you and your old friend are excited to meet up and hangout again, there you go!

Alright, so that covers 5 different ways on making friends as an adult. Let’s look at some other ways which are doable but not so preferable (in my opinion)…

Coworkers

One of the first places you’d probably look to meet new friends would be in your work location. And it makes sense as many people have done this. However, I would caution against trying to make friends at your workplace. There is a saying “don’t eat where you *” and this applies with making friends as well.

The problem with making friends at the workplace is if a conflict arises and you have a falling out with someone during off-work hours, then it’s going to make things awkward because you both work there and have to show up there. Unlike a “regular” friendship where you can just stop hanging out with someone if the friendship is over, you can’t really stop seeing them at work. And if you have to interact and work with them, then it’s going to make your work life more stressful.

So if you’re comfortable with the risk of having to work with someone you may potentially not like down the road, then go for it. For me, I don’t mind making friends at work but unless they’re really close to me, I try to keep things on a very platonic and professional level with coworkers.

Family member’s recommendations

I suppose if you need another way to meet new friends as an adult, you can always ask your family members to help you out with their network. However, I personally never liked it. For one, it already puts you in a lower state, as if you’re so desperate that you got to ask your own family to make new friends.

On top of that, their friends may not be compatible with you. For me, the friends that I have are pretty different from the friends that my family members have. While I always never had any issues with their friends (in fact some of them were really nice), I probably wouldn’t have a strong friendship connection. Nothing wrong with them personally, we’re just too different. And it’s the same way with my family members; they never really cared to know some of my friends either. I don’t know, my friend’s circle is totally different from anyone else in the family.

So that’s why I wouldn’t recommend trying to make new friends as an adult by asking family members. There are better methods, like the ones I listed above. You should carve your own path, basically.

Summary

To summarize, here are the 5 ways on making friends as an adult:

1. What are your hobbies?
2. Find hobby groups that interests you.
3. Join a Meetup group!
4. Take classes in the hobbies you’re interested in.
5. Facebook.

And there you have it; 5 ways on making friends as an adult! I hope you found this post useful and helpful. Again, it’s definitely possible to make new friends, no matter how old you are. The methods may not be the same as when you were in college or university, but remember that you’re not the only one who is looking for friends. There are TONS of people out there always wanting to meet new friends for various reasons.

If you have any questions or feedback, leave them in the comments below.