In the past month three men, (one 45ish, another 55ish, another 74) two of whom I was barely acquainted with, have poured their souls out to me over their relationship and business troubles. I'd argue that it isn't hard to make friends, it's just hard to meet people in the first place. Men in particular get into a habit of focusing on business and family. More than once I've heard older men voice a complaint if their…
They don't sound like very American men. Like the song goes, "I'm afraid of Americans... They don't need anyone, they don't even just pretend." I realized I have no friends at age 19. I've been fine with that for decades. I won't make any such generalizations about women. I know where I'm at. But I will say the younger guys seem weaker these days. They don't have the same general tough, friendless demeanor the Gen Xe…
Why is it hard to make friends over 30? (2012)
91–100 of 745 posts
Re: Why is it hard to make friends over 30? (2012)
#92Every time I end up in a stable live-in relationship (and I've seen this happen to a lot of my friends as well), the idea of going out and seeing/making friends more than once a week feels more and more unnecessary over time. It's so much easier to cook dinner and watch Netflix rather than get dressed and be on the prowl (both for romantic relationships and interesting people to hang out with).
Re: Why is it hard to make friends over 30? (2012)
#93I had this one co-worker call me every day. He would just yack, and yack. Some times I would put the phone down, and come back in 5 minutes, and he would still be talking. He was eccentric, had a horrid childhood, but genuinely nice. I thought he was nuts, but nice. We ended up becoming best friends. They used to call us the odd couple. I ended up trusted him more than family. We just included each other in everthing…
Re: Why is it hard to make friends over 30? (2012)
#94I find myself in this boat as we speak, and I'm not even 30. I certainly have plenty of acquaintances at work and at the hobbies and activities I participate in, and we do some group things every few months. I also have several close friends who I chat with every day online who don't live near me anymore. However, I have 0 real friends who I interact with IRL. If you asked me who I would call if I was having an emerg…
Personally I think that the world `friend` have been de-valued to the point used interchangeably with acquaintance. Also the modern social `self help` book's that mostly recommend venting people from ones life that are too needy or selfish and to surround yourself with only positive people who only want you to succeed have accumulated in a situation where people to people contact is very limtted and when it is its normally criticized and scrutinized for its merit.
The other end of the stick that I do like waggling is why do you think you need a friend? Are you soo focused on `friend` that you're not looking after yourself first? Maybe you're focused on friend because it takes the spotlight off yourself as the arbiter of your own life? Hell you may have not been successful because you didn't have a friend!
Focus on yourself, put boundaries around your life. Get a good night sleep, and focus on being better than you used to be yesterday. Expand your social/business circles and Friends will follow in a healthy productive way.
Re: Why is it hard to make friends over 30? (2012)
#95I can’t seem to read this right now since I’m over my limit of free articles but I’ll say that Meetup.com has been really helpful to find interesting people in the same boat. My recommendation to people is to find a meetup (doesn’t have to be from Meetup, could be a sports league, religious group, volunteering...) that meets frequently so that you have a chance to slowly get to know the same group of people over a co…
What I do to get a few more free views is, add a `.` to the end of .com. www.nytimes.com.
Re: Why is it hard to make friends over 30? (2012)
#96Anecdotal but, I'm 36 and I made the most friends I have ever made in my life in the last two years. From doing the conference/retreat circuit to, surprisingly, the festival circuit (Burning Man, Gratitude Migration, etc.) I've made a lot of close, real, amazing friends
Congrats ( not sarc! )
!/s
/g
Re: Why is it hard to make friends over 30? (2012)
#97When you were younger you probably made friends because you were all in school/college/university together. Some people make friends at work for the same reason (I've never really understood this though. After seeing them for 8 hours or so the last thing I want to do is spend time with them outside of work.) Where else can you go where people are gathered where friendships are likely to be created? Church/mosque/syna…
* Sports: lifting, yoga, martial arts, rock climbing, hiking. * Adult classes: dancing, cooking, painting. * Hobbies: guns, diving, photography, fishing, boating. * Lifestyle: all kinds of travel, alcohol and other substances. * Professional: startups... eh... scratch that. * Charity: pet shelters, soup kitchens, organizing. * Politics: volunteering, door-to-door. The trouble begins when you realize you don't actuall…
Re: Why is it hard to make friends over 30? (2012)
#98If everyone started out identical, however unlikely that is, and hobby interests compounded like interest, increasing the balance of ... warhammer 40K, for the sake of example, by 1% every year, then at age 18 you'd have identical interests and experiences and therefore make shallow friends with all kinds of randos who will diverge dramatically in the future, and by age 50, 1% compound hobby interest per year means y…
I also think the importance of having a common lifestyle or a lot of shared interests can be overstated. I don't share that many hobbies with my wife but I enjoy talking to her and spending time with her regardless. I enjoy meeting up with old friends from school even when they're at totally different career stages than I am. You don't have to do the most expensive thing you can afford every night.
Re: Why is it hard to make friends over 30? (2012)
#99The puzzle is instantly solvable if you ask why can't I be a good friend to others. Lets see, at age 19 I was juggling part time school, Army Reserves service, a grunt manual labor job, and an internship fake job, I was kinda busy. At age 22 I was working a semi-challenging full time programming job while still going to school just under the full time tuition credit limit to finally get my CS degree, so MTWR all night lectures and saturday morning class lectures until noon, so if someone said "hey lets have some beers" I'd be like LOL no. Starting around age 31 I was busy for a couple years with my father's obscure diagnosis terminal liver cancer which appeared out of the blue for no reason and couldn't be correctly diagnosed for months, which means not just the illness but helping mom move to apartment and sell the old house after fixing it up a bit, honestly I don't think I had a minute off from age 31 to about 33 or so when things started settling down. From age 29 until, well, frankly now, I have been busy raising two kids, and "daddy please come to my soccer game" trumps "hey lets have some beers" every time. And I spent most of age 30 talking to gastroENT doctors and dietitians and pediatricians about what ended up being Celliac disease for my older son, which ironically is very relaxing once you emerge from the medical industrial complex with a diagnosis, but until then its endless hell. At age 44 my MiL is slowing down and its time to move her from her house full of stuff requiring some repairs and cleanup to an apartment or "assisted living" or whatever, so I'm guessing this will consume about a year or two of my life. Around age 26 I got married, must have done it right still married to her, but doing a standard big spending American style marriage meant we consumed pretty much a year of our spare time, and I was merely the groom (tux fitting is like 15 minutes one time for guys whereas custom handmade wedding gown fitting is like five two hour trips to the gown maker for a dress she only wore a couple hours on the big day, for example)!
So yeah I have no idea why some dude can't find friends, but I could write for pages why I would be a terrible friend to someone who needed time. Lets face it, some rando from a hobby or work is pretty low on the totem pole which is crammed with family members.
Re: Why is it hard to make friends over 30? (2012)
#100The article makes it pretty clear that relationships and marriage take the place of friends, especially for men. 30 is also that sort of point where women who haven't had kids already think "uh oh, better soon than never". I can see the downvotes coming already for speaking on behalf of women, but I have more female friends than male ones and the number 30 is universally dreaded for the reason I describe. Well, then…
You'll find, when you get to 40, that you were confusing 30 with 40 in this post.