Admitting that you want to make new friends can feel a bit vulnerable—like there might be something wrong with you for not having enough friends in the first place.
But there are plenty of reasons why a perfectly lovable adult (hey, that’s you!) might want to expand their social circle. During the pandemic, many people have had friends move away or relocated to a new city themselves. Others have lost touch with friends in the tumult of the past few years. And even in ordinary times, it’s perfectly natural to be interested in forming new relationships with other human beings.
Indeed, the desire to make new friends as an adult—and the awkwardness of figuring out how to do it—is so common that the New Yorker has numerous satirical articles dedicated to the subject. The classic advice is to take a class or join a club or volunteer, all of which are effective strategies. But the deeper, more existential question isn’t where to find potential friends, but what to do in order to forge connections. Here are a few tips to get you started.
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