Does making new friends get easier or more difficult as you get older?
Making friends…. do you think it gets easier as you get older, or more difficult?
‘Will you be my friend/can we be friends’ are words one child can say to another in the playground, but adults can’t do that with someone they come across, say in the shop, library, or someone they get chatting to in the doctors’ waiting room perhaps. It would sound needy, or really weird, wouldn’t it?
As children, do we have any criteria for choosing who we are friends with, and does that change as we got older? Or do we just see someone we like for no particular reason that we think of, and that’s it? In other words, do we get more picky as we age? And if you don’t like joining groups and so on, how do you make friends?
How have you made new friends? Has the internet and social media provided you with new opportunities? Or have you joined a club or organisation? Are you still looking for new friends?
Does making new friends get easier or more difficult as you get older?
718 people have already voted, what's your opinion? EASIER MORE DIFFICULTWhat are your views?
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I have recently joined my local U3A, and met some people through the interest groups, and my one and only oldest friend ~(who hasn’t joined for reasons of her own)~ said”oh, you will now be able to make a lot of new friends!” to which I replied ”no, the folks there are only acquaintances who share an interest. They do not want to socialise after the group meetings, and during these sessions you are concentrating on the subject in question, e.g.,book club or chess, etc, and are not “chatting and making a new friend who will share your dreams, or come over for a coffee at a later date“ etc ,etc. Or is it just Me who finds that to be the case???? Would love to hear other comments.
I find it much easier - and sometimes more interesting - to make friends online. I did that before I moved to Dublin (and later on, Belfast), and so I already had friends there to meet in person, from chat! I have to say, though, that meeting other Americans through the internet has not been as much fun...they are not always who they seem to be, sorry to say.
I would give my right arm in order to emigrate permanently to either Ireland or the UK (Belfast in particular), but it's just as hard to emigrate there as it is to immigrate to the US.
Anyway, sorry for getting off topic!
My route back into a new life has been the internet. I use Facebook and Skype to keep in touch with family and friends. I use sites such as Silversurfers to remain part of the community of elders. I use the internet to follow my hobbies of cooking and classic cars. Following these hobbies often means going out and meeting people with the same interests as me. And of course when I meet people with the same interests as me I am not shy as I know we have something in common. Age is never a factor.
For people like me who are basically shy and quiet the internet is wonderful. It easily takes you through that first step of meeting people. It breaks the ice and used sensibly it can introduce you to people that you can chose to be friends with or chose not to be friends with.
So for me and because of the internet the answer is that it is easier. I will tick the easier box.
north
Happy to be proved wrong!