Hi all! You probably won’t find a person who doesn’t want to have a real friend. A lot has been said, written, films and programs made about this. But the question still remains on the agenda: who is a friend? How to find it? And how can you help your child find friends ? This is what we will devote our meeting to.
First, let's talk about our ideas about a real friend, as we see him. What is he like, an ideal comrade? And then together we’ll think about where and how to find it. Fine? Then go ahead!
Working team
It’s normal to feel a little nervous when you find yourself in a foreign city without friends and family. And in this case, psychologists advise not to withdraw into yourself, but, on the contrary, rather get out of your comfort zone and meet new people.
The first thing you can do is try to make friends with your work colleagues. To do this, you “just” need to remain sociable and open in the workplace. Daily meetings in the office, common business, corporate events, joint lunches or dinners are excellent reasons to start friendship.
But you should also take note of several less obvious ways to meet new people.
How to have fun spending time with friends?
There are many ways to have a fun evening or weekend with friends. Below you will learn how to diversify your leisure time:
• camping in the woods; • evening on the roof of the house with a bottle of wine and goodies; • evening of junk food: rolls, pizza and fast food - choose one or even all together; • going to the theater; • bus tour; • trip to the river; • evening in a themed restaurant (Italian, Japanese or Mexican cuisine); • dance club (salsa, tango or bachata); • boating; • movie night (romantic comedies, horror films or cartoons); • billiards; • bowling; • a walk to the movies; • shooting gallery; • cycling; • skiing, skating, snowboarding; • a day at an amusement park; • roller skating; • concert; • walk in the park; • going to the zoo; • motorcycle racing; • visit to the museum; • shopping; • a day at the dacha; • bathhouse; • sauna; • culinary courses; • a day at the spa; • board game evening; • trip to the beach; • tasting evening of cocktails at the bar.
Now you know how a married couple can make friends and how to have fun with new acquaintances.
Local shops
After moving, it is difficult to immediately begin to navigate the new city. Therefore, many people prefer to make online purchases. This is convenient, but deprives the possibility of live communication. The best option is to find a store that sells goods for your hobby. This is a chance not only to meet new people, but also to immediately build friendships based on interests.
Attention! You can find out from the sellers in such stores to see if there are themed clubs or special interest parties in the city. For example, a bookstore can provide contact information for organizers of joint readings, etc.
Where to look for friends
You can meet new people both in the real world and on the Internet. Choose what you like best.
In the Internet
Online dating has already become the norm. Moreover, there are a lot of sites on the Internet that help you find new acquaintances:
- open groups on social networks (“VKontakte”, “Odnoklassniki”, “Facebook”, “Instagram”);
- Internet forums;
- general chats in instant messengers (“Telegram”, “Whatsapp”);
- online games (“Minecraft”, “Avataria”, “Overwatch”, “Roblox”).
If you are a resident of a small town, look for the website or communities of your small homeland, taking into account the geolocation. Almost every city has one or more social media accounts. In these groups you can communicate with fellow countrymen, learn about ongoing events, and general meetings of interests. Such groups can be easily found by tags with the name of the city. For example, enter #Arzamas or #Asbestos in the search bar.
In large cities such as Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Rostov, Nizhny Novgorod, it is best to look for a community of interests. For example, young mothers create a group in which they discuss issues related to children, and are also looking for company for walks together. Often, community members organize meetings where they get to know each other in person. Actively participate in the life of society, leave comments, offer your help, go to meetings. People will notice you and will definitely want to meet you.
Teens will surely appreciate the opportunity to make friends by playing online games. In them, interaction takes place with real people who play different characters, having come up with an unusual nickname. In this virtual space, people prefer to hide their real names. However, while experiencing battles or other adventures with other players, communication gradually begins in the game chat. There is even a special program for communication between gamers - Discord. It was released as an analogue of Skype specifically for online game players.
By the way, another option to make new acquaintances is to become a popular blogger on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or start your own YouTube channel. I wrote about this in more detail in the article “How to become popular.” The main thing is to find your own style. As the number of subscribers grows, the number of people wishing to meet in person will also increase.
Online, people feel more liberated, inhibitions, fears and distance are erased. The Internet can imperceptibly bring together two people located on opposite ends of the planet who would hardly meet in real life.
However, when communicating virtually, you need to be careful, because some people pretend to be completely different from who they really are. You come across scammers, hidden psychopaths, pseudo-bloggers with fake subscribers, rich people who don’t have a penny to their name. It is much easier to cheat online than in real life. Therefore, carefully study the page of your new friend to at least make sure that he is normal.
No matter how interesting it is to communicate online, this is not enough to create strong friendships. Still, a live conversation, during which you feel the emotions and mood of the interlocutor, can tell you much more about a friend than correspondence on WhatsApp, Cocoa Talk or Viber. Even if you send each other voice messages.
Before inviting an online friend to meet in person, it is better to chat with him on Skype for a while. If nothing seems suspicious to you, then invite your new friend to a meeting in a crowded place.
Those who want to practice learning a foreign language can find a friend on one of the social networks. Correspondence and live communication with an English-speaking interlocutor will be the best practice for learning English.
In real life
It's amazing how easily a child finds friends. And in kindergarten, and at school, and at a summer camp, and in the summer in the village with his grandmother, and even at the dacha with his parents, he will definitely make friends with the local children. But adults can make new acquaintances in the following places:
- At University . The life of a student is easy and carefree until he gets a job. It is during the student period that a huge number of new acquaintances are made (guys from the group, dormitory, faculty, sports section, etc.).
- At work . Employment in a factory or office involves communication with the team. Invite your colleagues to have lunch together or sit in a cafe after work. The informal atmosphere is conducive to friendly communication. Those who work remotely on a computer can use the method of finding friends on the Internet.
- In the sports section . This option is for men who love sports and especially team games. Having joined the sports section, he will definitely meet new people there. There are also options when amateur players rent a hall and just play volleyball, football, basketball. They can post information about games in local online communities or post announcements directly in the gym.
- In class . Women can not only tone their figure in group fitness, dance or yoga classes, but also find a girlfriend there. The conversation can easily start in the locker room or on the way home if you have a similar route.
- In interest clubs . People can unite not only for sports, but also for interests. For example, they organize apartment parties where they read poetry, sing original songs, and watch conceptual films. Everyone is invited to attend. There are also different societies of fishermen, car enthusiasts, tourists and others.
- At master classes . This option is more suitable for girls. Now there are a large number of master classes where everyone is taught to draw, bake cakes and pastries, sew dresses, make cards with their own hands, make soap and other girlish activities. At them, girls united by a common cause usually talk and laugh a lot. And such an environment is perfect for making acquaintances.
All of the above methods will help expand your social circle, especially after moving to another city or abroad. In addition, this can be done without registering on social networks.
Social media
Using this method, it is important to maintain a middle ground. You shouldn’t immerse yourself in virtual communication, but you can find thematic local groups and pages on social networks. You can also use dating apps to find people who are nearby.
Important! This option is for those who are not shy about declaring that they are looking for new friends. You can record a story and post it on your Instagram, indicating your new location. Then wait a bit for responses and comments. Some even use this method to find their soulmate.
It is not necessary to search for pages or groups of this particular city. In large thematic groups, they usually create a “welcome” or “roll call” post, where participants talk about themselves, where they are from and what they do.
How to get rid of loneliness and find friends?
Content
Loneliness is one of the common problems of our time, which especially concerns residents of large cities. This is due to a busy work schedule combined with household chores and a number of other reasons. You should start with yourself.
How to get rid of loneliness and find friends?
Each person puts his own meaning into the concept of “friendship”: for some it is an opportunity to have fun, for others it is help in a difficult situation, for others it is necessary to simply be listened to. The main questions that people often ask themselves and psychologists are “Where to look for friends?”, “How to meet people?”, “How to overcome your shyness and embarrassment?”
Psychologists first of all recommend that their clients start with themselves - to understand their internal feelings, highlight their strengths and weaknesses. Understand what meaning they mean by the word “friendship”.
Recommendations from psychologists that will help raise your self-esteem and increase your chances of making new acquaintances include the following:
Smile more often
People with a good sense of humor, open and friendly, are much more likely to find friends. A dull, boring and unsmiling person can be as good as he likes, but his appearance does not attract, but rather repels potential acquaintances.
Smile more often
Correctly assess your personality
You don’t need to extol your own strengths too much, but you also shouldn’t dwell too much on your shortcomings. They love a person and make friends with him simply because they like him, and his appearance plays absolutely no role.
Correctly assess your personality
Learn to listen
The ability to listen to another person wins people over. A real interlocutor knows how not only to speak, but also to remain silent or console at the right time.
Learn to listen
Be a sympathetic person
Responsiveness and participation will help you find new friends. The main thing is that these character traits are not used to harm a person and that he does not become a victim of manipulators.
Be a sympathetic person
Understanding and sympathy
The ability to share someone else's sadness and pain is an important quality. But it’s even more difficult to rejoice at a friend’s luck and happiness.
Understanding and sympathy
Getting our priorities right
Depending on why a person needs friends, he can use certain options and methods of meeting people. If you need friends so that they can share some interests, then for this you can register on thematic sites or enroll in relevant courses. If a person is looking for his “soul mate,” then it makes sense to respond to advertisements on social networks or on specialized dating sites.
Getting our priorities right
If a person simply lacks communication in life, then you can try to meet people on tourist trips, or try to find close people at your job or at college. A good way to get to know your work colleagues or classmates at the institute better is by spending holidays together or going out into nature. Every day hundreds of people pass by us, with many of us we exchange only minor phrases. But maybe one day we should stop and have a real conversation.
Interesting article: Fears: how to get rid of worries from scratch?
Useful video
New hobby
If you still have to leave your comfort zone, then you can complicate the task a little! It’s not easy to find a company that matches your interests, but to start doing something new and unusual.
For example, this could be dancing, especially social dancing. At the so-called “salzateks” there are always many participants who are happy not only to dance, but also to chat about interesting topics.
