09-30-2025, 11:16 AM
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Article:
How to Make Friends as an Adult (Our 2025 Research-Backed Quick Guide) We’ll show you some simple ways to find people to be friends with, and form better deeper friendships with them. February 6, 2025. If you’re looking to make friends, you’re not alone.
Click here for can we make friends
In fact, study after study has shown that we are suffering through what some have called a “loneliness epidemic”: From 1990 to 2021 , the percentage of adults saying they have a “best friend” dropped from 75% to 59%. People from the ages of 19-29 report the highest levels of loneliness ( 27% are “Very lonely” ). These numbers decrease as people age. Sometimes, our struggle to make friends gets blamed on our online lives. And sure, the internet has changed the way we interact and maybe killed some old ways of making friends (like at the mall). But technology is also creating new ways to make friends! So we’ll focus on some of the new and some of the old here. In this article, we’ll talk about what it takes to make friends. We’ll show you some simple, research-backed strategies for: It’s not hard! And by following these strategies, you could have a new friend by this time next week! Hungry for community. In his famous book “ Bowling Alone ”, Robert Putnam described what he called the collapse of American social capital. For Putnam, the demise of bowling alleys was a warning sign. As a lot of us disconnect from communities, we get lonelier. And that makes it harder to make friends. If you’re looking to make friends, there are two big ways to think about it. Offline community. Even in a connected world, there are still lots of opportunities to make friends IRL. This includes some of the old-school ways we’ll talk about below, like community volunteering or meeting your neighbors. But there’s a new wave of intentional offline communities forming too! We loved the viral videos of cafes popping up where phones are not allowed. People gather to play board games, knit, and chat. This picture is from an event in London. The thing is, people want to connect. We know it. We realize that our digital lives often leave us missing the real part of human connection we crave so much. And we can get intentional about how we build it. And online community. But online community can be powerful too. And one of the benefits of online communities is that they are great places to make friends! When so many people are being pushed into echo chambers and doom scrolling by social media algorithms, it’s easy to get cynical about the state of community online. When we have so many studies showing the harms of social media, it gets easy to blame loneliness on it. But tech isn’t always the enemy of making friends. In fact, more of our relationships start online. This is true of dating, where the rise of meeting online has skyrocketed. And it’s true of friendships too! You can form incredible relationships over the internet. Real, lasting, genuine friendships. Friendships that stay online and friendships that spill into real life. Sure, the online world has challenged some of the ways we used to make friends. But it’s opened up new possibilities to connect to strangers IRL and around the world online. How to make friends. Where to make friends as an adult. 1. Find events. Even a small to medium-sized city will have things happening most weekends. And if you live in a big city, there’s ALWAYS stuff going on. Here are some resources for finding what’s happening. Meetup: A website dedicated to helping people find local events. You’ll find plenty of formal events, but also lots of people looking to connect for things like “Ugly sweater” parties or “board game nights.” Google: If you Google “conferences” or “events in my town,” you’ll find that any city has tons of stuff happening on the average weekend. Find something that interests you and go! Take a chance. 2. Join stuff. If you aren’t already active in extra curriculars, it’s one of the best ways to make friends. Whether it’s a pickup football game, mountain biking, or scrapbooking, joining things can get you into contact with people you wouldn’t otherwise meet. Find a local club to get involved with and dive in. *Tip: Remember, it can be intimidating to join new groups where it feels like everyone knows each other and/or knows more about the activity than you do. It’s normal to feel a bit of imposter syndrome at first. Remember that every “insider” was once an “outsider.” Keep going! * 3. Meet your neighbors. The people around you may or may not be the perfect friends. But you should at least figure it out. Things like block parties or community events can be a way to meet the people around you. Talk to your neighbors if you get a chance. You never know what can come of it. 4. Care for others. Whether it’s volunteering at a local nursing home or baking muffins for a neighbor, finding ways to care for others takes the focus off yourself and helps you to form new friendships. It also makes people feel valued and cared for, and does a lot to combat our loneliness–even if it doesn’t lead to lifelong friendships. 5. Volunteer. Volunteering for stuff in your community can be a great way to make new friends. Signing up for a cause you care about is the perfect place to meet like-minded people who are driven by similar ideals and values. Here are a couple ways to get started: Choose a cause you care about : The majority of non-profits and citizen action groups are always looking for people to help. It could be as easy as dropping an email or phone call to see if there are volunteer opportunities. Sign up for your kids’ activities : If you are a parent, you will know that there is almost always a need for volunteers for things like school trips, the PTA, or local sports. While it’s a time commitment, signing up for these types of activities can increase your exposure to other parents too! A lot of parents make friends this way. 6. Join an online community.
How can we make a good friend
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Can we make friends
Article:
How to Make Friends as an Adult (Our 2025 Research-Backed Quick Guide) We’ll show you some simple ways to find people to be friends with, and form better deeper friendships with them. February 6, 2025. If you’re looking to make friends, you’re not alone.
Click here for can we make friends
In fact, study after study has shown that we are suffering through what some have called a “loneliness epidemic”: From 1990 to 2021 , the percentage of adults saying they have a “best friend” dropped from 75% to 59%. People from the ages of 19-29 report the highest levels of loneliness ( 27% are “Very lonely” ). These numbers decrease as people age. Sometimes, our struggle to make friends gets blamed on our online lives. And sure, the internet has changed the way we interact and maybe killed some old ways of making friends (like at the mall). But technology is also creating new ways to make friends! So we’ll focus on some of the new and some of the old here. In this article, we’ll talk about what it takes to make friends. We’ll show you some simple, research-backed strategies for: It’s not hard! And by following these strategies, you could have a new friend by this time next week! Hungry for community. In his famous book “ Bowling Alone ”, Robert Putnam described what he called the collapse of American social capital. For Putnam, the demise of bowling alleys was a warning sign. As a lot of us disconnect from communities, we get lonelier. And that makes it harder to make friends. If you’re looking to make friends, there are two big ways to think about it. Offline community. Even in a connected world, there are still lots of opportunities to make friends IRL. This includes some of the old-school ways we’ll talk about below, like community volunteering or meeting your neighbors. But there’s a new wave of intentional offline communities forming too! We loved the viral videos of cafes popping up where phones are not allowed. People gather to play board games, knit, and chat. This picture is from an event in London. The thing is, people want to connect. We know it. We realize that our digital lives often leave us missing the real part of human connection we crave so much. And we can get intentional about how we build it. And online community. But online community can be powerful too. And one of the benefits of online communities is that they are great places to make friends! When so many people are being pushed into echo chambers and doom scrolling by social media algorithms, it’s easy to get cynical about the state of community online. When we have so many studies showing the harms of social media, it gets easy to blame loneliness on it. But tech isn’t always the enemy of making friends. In fact, more of our relationships start online. This is true of dating, where the rise of meeting online has skyrocketed. And it’s true of friendships too! You can form incredible relationships over the internet. Real, lasting, genuine friendships. Friendships that stay online and friendships that spill into real life. Sure, the online world has challenged some of the ways we used to make friends. But it’s opened up new possibilities to connect to strangers IRL and around the world online. How to make friends. Where to make friends as an adult. 1. Find events. Even a small to medium-sized city will have things happening most weekends. And if you live in a big city, there’s ALWAYS stuff going on. Here are some resources for finding what’s happening. Meetup: A website dedicated to helping people find local events. You’ll find plenty of formal events, but also lots of people looking to connect for things like “Ugly sweater” parties or “board game nights.” Google: If you Google “conferences” or “events in my town,” you’ll find that any city has tons of stuff happening on the average weekend. Find something that interests you and go! Take a chance. 2. Join stuff. If you aren’t already active in extra curriculars, it’s one of the best ways to make friends. Whether it’s a pickup football game, mountain biking, or scrapbooking, joining things can get you into contact with people you wouldn’t otherwise meet. Find a local club to get involved with and dive in. *Tip: Remember, it can be intimidating to join new groups where it feels like everyone knows each other and/or knows more about the activity than you do. It’s normal to feel a bit of imposter syndrome at first. Remember that every “insider” was once an “outsider.” Keep going! * 3. Meet your neighbors. The people around you may or may not be the perfect friends. But you should at least figure it out. Things like block parties or community events can be a way to meet the people around you. Talk to your neighbors if you get a chance. You never know what can come of it. 4. Care for others. Whether it’s volunteering at a local nursing home or baking muffins for a neighbor, finding ways to care for others takes the focus off yourself and helps you to form new friendships. It also makes people feel valued and cared for, and does a lot to combat our loneliness–even if it doesn’t lead to lifelong friendships. 5. Volunteer. Volunteering for stuff in your community can be a great way to make new friends. Signing up for a cause you care about is the perfect place to meet like-minded people who are driven by similar ideals and values. Here are a couple ways to get started: Choose a cause you care about : The majority of non-profits and citizen action groups are always looking for people to help. It could be as easy as dropping an email or phone call to see if there are volunteer opportunities. Sign up for your kids’ activities : If you are a parent, you will know that there is almost always a need for volunteers for things like school trips, the PTA, or local sports. While it’s a time commitment, signing up for these types of activities can increase your exposure to other parents too! A lot of parents make friends this way. 6. Join an online community.
How can we make a good friend
How can we make friends
How do we make friends
We can make friends
Can we make friends