Is it really harder to find true, meaningful friendships (not romantic and/or sexual) in more ‘adult’ years or is this an introverts problem? I am quite introverted at first, I would never just start a friendly conversation with a stranger and work friends usually are just work friends. I moved to UK in 2019 and since then I had few different jobs and connected with people from work, but none of them wanted to stay in touch outside work. I was a bit confused, as I thought those people enjoyed my company as much I did theirs. Not even sure if this is maybe a cultural thing? I grew up in Poland and Eastern European people are more direct than British, so you know straight away of they like you or not. What are your experiences? How do you deal with meeting new people?
I’m dealing with this myself, and as others have said as people exit education and enter the workforce, there’s often fewer opportunities to meet new people and develop friendships. In school you had multiple classes with all new people to get to know, in the workplace you’re usually working with the same dozen or so people. I personally also have a detached workplace persona that’s very different from me outside of work, and that barrier naturally makes it harder to make genuine connections.
Local events like farmers markets or board game nights at a local game store are great ways to meet new people, it just takes some proactive effort to find them, actually show up, and be open to conversation.