Definitely a chicken egg thing like you say, where i don’t think any one individual is at fault or Doing Socializing wrong lol. I think we live in materially and meaningfully worse times; or at least less conducive to making friends post-uni. Completely understandable if someone doesn’t feel unraveling this is the battle they want to be on, esp more so the more they have already.
However.
I’m just listing and sharing my strats JUST IN CASE anyone else wants to be on this particular battle, bc unraveling it will also be a recursive chicken and egg where people with more friends make friends more easily, more IRL connections available will decrease online-onlyness (on the scale of individuals at a time), and more participation in fun or welfare social programs will only make more of them more available.
Also, to the question of taste and interests… i think the Internet, which the 30+s may remember life without, way raised our expectation that our interests can be exact matched. I love that on this forum and some discords i can find many people who like say, III -Ligro-. Wouldn’t want to lose that. But maybe it’s had the side effect of raising what we expect IRL to matches from compatibility.
Like i listen to precisely zero hardcore punk, emo rap, and darkwave in my spare time. Sorry, not 100% my thing. BUT that’s what’s going on in Dallas, that’s what band friends invite me to go see, so i do that, and now those three scenes are where i have band friends, fan friends, photographer friends etc, and that’s all been way influential on how i write and work.
The drummer who’s in my band now, he was from darkwave/punk, never heard of vkei, so our interests were like almost zero aligned. But he’s showed me cool bands in his scene and i in mine; now he’s seen vkei bands live and shopped at closetchild lol
So like maybe the 30s-40s women w/ same interests aren’t never available just bc one can’t see all the possibilities just yet?
I think you defintely have a point here.
I also thought about this after reading this:
I am lucky to have a lot of friends - real friends, not just acquaintances - especially compared to other people in my age range (I’m 42).
But have all of them the same interests or hobbies than me? Absolutely not. With most friends, I share only one of my interests/hobby. And I don’t mind that at all. We are on the same wavelengths none the less and have a lot to talk about even though we’ll, for example, never go to a concert together.
Being open-minded when meeting other people helps a lot when trying to make friends.
And I also have friends who are around ten years younger and also around ten years older than me.
I can totally understand the problem with people having small kids, though. That affects me, too. It’s a lot harder for both sides to keep the friendship alive, but it is possible.
As a side note, the modern comedy television is in so unbearably pityful state and it saddens me to no end. Pretty much every trending and highly acclaimed comedy that’s been released in 2020s is either mid at best (Mythic Quest, late seasons of WWDITS) or just not funny at all (Shrinking, Abbott Elementary, Hacks, Only Murders in the Building, Reservoir Dogs). The Bear has won multiple awards in Comedy nominations, and I still have yet to laugh for at least once watching that series. It’s a decent drama, however their attempts at comedic banter do nothing but annoy me. And not to forget the most cringeworthy “comedy” show I’ve ever seen - Ted Lasso. Ugh, I’m still angry that I forced myself to watch the entire first season of this dull crap, only to see if it gets better eventually (spoiler: it gets even worse).
oh yeah definitely!!! i have friends as in people i can talk to on a week to week basis about some interest, but as for meaningful friendships, those are hard to come by. that’s what i had responded to before, long lasting deep friendships i had before are gone as people decide that their marriage and motherhood completely defines them as a person now. it is what it is, i just occasionally get sad but it’s all good lol
Is Jury Duty / Company Retreat your sorta thing? I haven’t watched TV otherwise in at least a decade lol but those two were worth stopping in for for me
Jury Duty was alright. For what it did, it did a very good job at it and I had quite a few laughs there. Definitely a better comedy than any of the aforementioned shows. Company Retreat I’ve yet to watch tho.
Today’s the last full day of my trip. I’ve slept like shit the past 2 nights (and both look and feel like it) and even though I was hoping my period would be on time, and start on Saturday, I have a feeling it’ll start today. Also I found out yesterday that the makeup wipes I bought specifically for this trip do not work on waterproof mascara
The trip itself has been fun but I’m so ready to go home tomorrow.
If you have some vegetable oil like coconut or olive oil at hand, that should do the trick - but be careful to only use a small amount that not gets in your eyes.
Ppl who constantly cry about being lonely, having no friends and no social life, but reject every attempt to talk or meet up are officially worse than shtttt. Keep complaining then! Good luck girl
I kept the wipes on my eyes for a few minutes and rubbed a lot (aka everything you’re not supposed to do lmao) and managed to get the mascara off. Today I opted out of putting on more because I need my lashes to look nice in a week
Anyone got a stream deck? Any ideas on what I can do with it? I don’t stream to Twitch but I do stream to my friends in discord and it’s useful as an automation tool, but I feel like I’m scratching the surface with it! Maybe I’ll spend an afternoon and program REAPER commands…
Also I found out yesterday that the makeup wipes I bought specifically for this trip do not work on waterproof mascara 
