this post was submitted on 09 May 2025
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I am not joking when I say that I thinked for hours about how do people find each other in 2025.

Currently, the world is in very weird state. People online are either using social video platforms or they are reading news or lurking in online forums in it's different shapes and forms.

Most chat platforms that I know had shut down and most alt social platforms are almost dead. Even Hackernews had started to see a lower amount of comments compared to previous years.

I want a serious answer, how should I find people online to talk to about anything really other than politics?

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[–] gnomesaiyan@lemmy.world 5 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Love yourself and be content in being alone, get to know the real you. When you do that, you will find the right people. It will be instinctual.

[–] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

Or you'll just be alone with your cats forever because you no longer leave the house, but like it's cool because you're fine being alone.

Would still be neat to find a partner, though, but the likelihood she shows up at my house is pretty slim. Maybe I should order more doordash..

[–] reiterationstation@lemm.ee 2 points 7 hours ago

I never leave the house and people are constantly messaging me online and trying to be friends in a lot of cases.

The hack is to be useful to people. Then you’ll have friends even if you don’t leave the house.

[–] gnomesaiyan@lemmy.world 0 points 6 hours ago

When you find yourself, it won't be in your house. That's hiding from yourself.

[–] ludrol@bookwormstory.social 1 points 10 hours ago

For me WebFishing. Some time ago I played VRchat.

Discord is also good but lack of 3d avatars just doesn't provide the feeling of socialisation.

[–] Ledericas@lemm.ee 2 points 13 hours ago

Hey people have dated and married over gaming chats before. I knew someone in college he met his then about to engage fiance. I lost contact after graduation though

[–] HatchetHaro@pawb.social 7 points 18 hours ago

play an MMO game. plenty of ways to break into friend groups there.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 1 points 12 hours ago

I meet tons of people on Discord.

[–] drmoose@lemmy.world 7 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Check out https://slowly.app/ - its a penpall service that simulates snail mail which makes for great connections! You can get a random pall or choose one explicitly and the community there is really wholesome.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 13 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

In their terms of service, they share data with ad companies and marketers. But I can't copy paste it here because JavaScript

Edit: grammar

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 51 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)


Seriously though the only places I've seen any kind of thriving community are invite-only private torrent tracker sites.

[–] capuccino@lemmy.world 10 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

I have an IRL friend who always goes like "oh, sorry, its invite-only torrent ( ̄y▽, ̄)╭ "

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 23 hours ago

That's lame, you're only supposed to be inviting people you really know IRL anyway... Weak excuse from your friend, if you're willing to seed.

[–] Linnce@lemmy.world 12 points 23 hours ago

I posted on lemmy if anyone wanted to play games with me. Someone answered and we talk everyday since then, on most days we spend hours on video calls. Just try posting on whatever you use, you might find people you like.

[–] Fizz@lemmy.nz 14 points 1 day ago

Play on small game servers at the same time every day. Eventually youll start seeing the regulars and then its just a matter or trying to break into the friend group.

Outside of that you could try discord but its like wading through a sea of shit. If youre over 25 it will be very hard to find a group that doesnt eventually end up filled with kids or everyone has gotten on with their lives.

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 10 points 23 hours ago (18 children)

You really want online? I guess playing games, discord, vrchat.

My suggestion, do stuff IRL

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[–] CrayonDevourer@lemmy.world 34 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Whatever you do, steer clear of meetup.com - all of their social activities on there now are scientologists thinly veiling their seminars as get-togethers.

[–] Waldelfe@feddit.org 4 points 17 hours ago

That's not true everywhere, my city has a pretty good meetup scene for various hobbies. However the amount of people who sell their useless courses as "meetup, but I will ask for a 20€ fee from everyone" or shady "we will talk about investing/crypto..." groups has gone up.

[–] whostosay@lemmy.world 7 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

How does that even work lol

"What do you guys wanna do? Actually I know, let's check out this building" "no you should really check out this building" "get in the fucking building"

"Guys I wanna leave"

"Okay but $50 and we will call your phone for eternity"

[–] CrayonDevourer@lemmy.world 3 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)
[–] Owlboi@lemm.ee 31 points 1 day ago

Videogames.

[–] Libb@jlai.lu 19 points 1 day ago

I want a serious answer, how should I find people online to talk to about anything really other than politics?

You don't.

You don't find people online (or IRL) waiting for strangers to start a discussion on some random topic you feel like talking about. Because people, unlike trolls, are busy with their live.

What you can find is people willing to discuss with someone they find interesting or, with any luck, intriguing on whatever topic you both are interested in.

So, what are you interested in? Have you any hobbies, interests, passions? Find small communities around those topics you're interested in, and start posting. Do the work to show you're there and that, maybe, you're worth discussing with.

[–] Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Meeting people is much possible in the real world.

[–] LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Is it? Fucking where? And how? Because all the people I know I've met through dating apps up, online forums, or knew them from school or uni. I have plenty of hobbies, but there aren't any even vaguely related groups for them, and if they are, they aren't very discoverable.

[–] Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee 3 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

How do you not meet people? Even if you're stuck in front of a computer all day you can go out to a pub or something at the weekend. Put yourself in a social environment and be friendly. It sounds like you even have experience of that from school and uni.

[–] insomniac_lemon@lemmy.cafe 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

I'm in the US with no car (and not in a city), and don't drink. No idea on anything that could even be mistaken for a social environment, especially when it requires money.

I mean yeah I'm also not wired for that, so add in other issues/oddities and that's just how it is I guess.

[–] Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

What do other people in your area do?

[–] insomniac_lemon@lemmy.cafe 1 points 3 hours ago

From what I see from family, it probably involves drinking or travel/expenses beyond me (also, with their existing connections). Though these days if it's not work or shopping they probably are staying home more often than not.

I ride my bike on a multi-use trail, but given the sparse area not good odds to meet anyone due to multiple reasons.

[–] capuccino@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

A couple years ago I had my discord nametag as my Mario Kart Wii nickname, zheg#someNumbers, random people added me and then talked with them while playing. Those were good ol' days.

[–] nadram@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago

I don't have an answer about online methods... I went through the phase of how to meet people as well, and eventually decided to join / try out some group activities. I did some rookie dragon boating, table tennis, stand up paddle, and eventually met my forever spouse as she taught me scuba diving. PS: other than the scuba diving, those were all free activities for beginners. Good luck

[–] NGnius@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 day ago

I hear Lemmy is pretty good as a sort of forum, maybe you've heard of it?

But more seriously, I've found that social media platforms (even the fediverse ones) tend to limit connections to surface-level. I personally wouldn't rely on them to find people to talk to. But if you're looking for communities who share similar interests, it's very good at that. If you're looking for individuals, the next best thing is sliding into someone's DMs to have a more focused one-on-one conversation. I'd recommend against doing that without some other interaction first (it looks scammy).

In case you want to chat, my DMs are open.

[–] ocean@lemmy.selfhostcat.com 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

thinked

You don’ thunk hard

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[–] owlboy@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

VRChat is an option. Takes effort to make your way to the cool people tho.

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