Preface, nothing against those that do.
Its increasingly difficult to ever do fun things with my current friends. Now that I’m to the point where I have the space and the money and time to do pretty much anything I want, no one else has any time to hang out. I get ignored a lot, which I get, they care about their family more. But I’m the type of person who likes to host stuff and do things.
Not a huge deal to me, I’m fine being alone, but its like, man, its really fun hanging out and playing some IRL video games or just cruising or walking around outdoors etc. I guess nobody really has time as they get old though. Or maybe I need to find a younger crowd 😆 I have no idea.
(fyi I am not sponsored, I’ve just used these and liked them)
I’m in a similar boat, but I’ve had good luck with just finding clubs and going through meetup. Even if you only go once or twice it’s still something new to do.
Volunteering is always a good option too, gets you out and meeting people and you get to help your community. The parks and food banks especially always need volunteers.
And the last one I’ll recommend is an app called Timeleft. It’s paid ($20 a month) but you get to basically pick from the events they have and either go for dinner or coffee and meet with 6 random others on the app. I like it because there no pressure, it’s not a dating app or anything, and you get to just hang with some open minded people for a few hours and chat. Everyone is identified so there’s safety with it, and after each event you get to give out (and receive) little impressions like “Who felt the most welcoming”, “who was good at leading conversation”, “who was a good listener” etc.
Either way, it can feel challenging sometimes, but the options are out there. And as always, don’t be afraid to host something and just throw the invites out, worst case people are too busy but most of the time people want to hang out, they just don’t want to plan it.