Introduction
Hello! In this post, we address one of the most popular questions of interpersonal relations: how to find friends. Anyone might experience this need during their life. We might desire to find and make friends while feeling lonely, looking for mates to hang out with on the weekend, or building a professional network. Let’s think how that can be achieved.
First of all, there is no universal method to find friends. Every situation is individual and unique. Hence, the compilation is a great way to deliver the actionable insights. There are a lot of people who have ever encountered the need to make friends. We gathered their opinions for you to get some ideas.
For solutions, we went to Reddit and collected tips on how to find friends from community members. Below you can see the selected points with our comments.
1. Volunteering
“Volunteering is a great way to meet new people and make friends.”
Definitive characteristic of volunteering: you are doing together an uneasy, mostly unpaid job for a significant period of time. A person would opt into something like that only if deeper, more profound beliefs were involved. The friends, especially soulmates, tend to share the values and at least some views. That's why volunteering to do things you consider important is a great way to meet prospective associates. And the experience of going through challenges together is a nice bonus.
2. Work
“I know this doesn't work for everyone, but outside of college, most of my newer friends are all previous or current coworkers.”
You can consider your colleagues as potential friend candidates. Such relationships have a proof of mutual cooperation and problem solving, which is an important factor. There might be some friend options at your current workplace. Or, you could pay more attention to the team whenever you look for a new job.
The good option as well is past coworkers. You already know them to some extent, but there are no aggravating factors like a competition or necessity to interact often.
3. Clubs
“I’m thinking about joining a cult”
There are a lot of clubs by interests online and offline. Attending them must be the great idea for finding friends. Although the shared hobby alone might not be a strong predictor of becoming friends with a person. Besides that, you better match on general value and communication style (topics, jokes, etc.).
A couple of points regarding a hobby choice.
First, do you have enough time? Usually, the activity takes a few hours a week, with a potential extension if you’d like to meet afterwards.
Second, mind the group members variety based on your preferences. There are more homogeneous groups, like a sports club of a business school, and more diverse, like an open language-speaking club. Do you want to meet people who are somehow like you or completely different ones?
4. Apps
“There’s a “Friends only” section of Craigslist”
Looking for friends in the apps (dating ones as well) is particularly useful because people there kind of know what they want. There are fields to fill out about yourself and a lot of profiles to check. Discovering people online, you can assume that the match happened not due to a mere propinquity but particular traits matching.
In addition, it takes some degree of openness and courage to disclose the intention of looking for friends. So, the person must be serious about that.
Apps that were mentioned often: bumble bff, tinder, meetup. You should check out the popular services at your location too.
5. Your memory
“Friendships take effort, especially as we get older”
For the last one, the unique option of finding friends that has not been mentioned. That is your memory! In other words, the personal network.
Every person meets a lot of people over the course of life. Let yourself think: is there anyone you would like to know better now? Circumstances change, people evolve, so the ones we barely knew in the past might become fitting mates for your current interests, lifestyle, etc.
Reaching out to people you already know has a couple of advantages. First, looking up potential friends in your memory is relatively quick. Second, you already have some trust and information based on your prior encounters. So, if you recall a good person, check out how they are doing (that’s simpler if they’re on social media). Then, think about how you can smoothly get to know them better.
Conclusion
In conclusion, two tips, not places, on finding friends:
1) Know yourself
2) Things take time
Why it is important? Ask us on team@knei.space or social media. Good luck on your journey!
References
- https://www.reddit.com/r/socialskills/comments/18sn4zf/where_do_i_find_friends/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Adulting/comments/1d5p4ce/how_tf_are_yall_finding_friends_irl/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/qo8vme/serious_where_the_fuck_are_you_supposed_to_find/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Adulting/comments/17kapeh/how_do_you_make_friends_in_your_30s/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/socialskills/comments/mxk6jq/recommended_apps_for_more_socially_introverted/
- https://www.knei.space/blog/propinquity-effect
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