How to Make Friends Online – A Guide for Adults

As common as it is to use dating apps in today’s age, making friends online can be a challenge many people face. If you are wondering how to make friends online or struggle with finding good resources that matches what you are looking for, here are some strong options to consider.

People can seem awry when attempting to form new friendships online on apps such as Bumble BFF. But it’s important to remember not to judge yourself when attempting to find someone to initiate a connection with.

Even if you form a connection online, studies have found that the psychological and emotional benefits of these friendships equal to those of a face-to-face relationship. Having an online relationship helps those who suffer from social anxiety or shyness.

FriendPC also offers the help of Virtual Friends who can converse with people until they feel comfortable about speaking to people. When you have a screen standing between you and someone else, it can alleviate any anxieties associated with face-to-face conversations.

Discovering Online Communities

If you are not comfortable with making friends online, we recommend starting with small online communities that will be easier to find a connection on there. In small online communities, it makes it easier to be noticed and paid attention by other members because each member keeps the community alive. Other members will want to keep you included as much as possible to keep the community flowing.

What makes large online communities difficult to start in is because you blend in with the crowd and your voice isn’t heard as much. Unless you are a long time member, most people might not pay attention to you.

Examples of online communities you can join are chat rooms, forums, or websites that offer questions and answers queries. Find a community that relates to any questions or concerns you may have about life and proceed on with making it work. Examples of community niches you can join are:

Discussion Forums

Feedback Forums

Q&A Forums

Article Forums

Social Media Niche Groups

I personally enjoy dogs in general so I have joined a variety of Facebook groups related to dogs. And I found many friends who were also dog lovers through these groups who I can discuss about dog experiences with. I have learned what type of dog food I should get for my pets and best ways to train them.

If you decide to join a Facebook niche group, make an effort to post daily content such as photos or advice you can share with the community. Share your experiences that someone else might relate with and comment on other people posts.

After being active in the community for a few days or weeks, you begin to recognize the regular members of the group and from there push for further communication with them.

If you are an Instagram or Twitter user, although not as easy to converse with a group of people like on Facebook, you can still interact with people who share your common interests. If your hobby consist of baking, look up other users on those platforms who enjoy baking with a simple hashtag such as

• #bakerlife
• #mybakedgoods
• #bakingislife

When you see a collection of posts related to the hashtag you used, you can begin look for a post that stands out to you and follow that user, comment on their listings and get to know them further. After days or weeks, make an effort to reach out to them with a question about their posts or hobby.

The Gaming Community

If you are interested in the gaming community, this would be a fantastic avenue to meet like minded individuals you can form a bond with. In today’s era, online gaming has become one of the easier proxies to make friends online.

You both have the same common interest already which would be the game itself. There is also a good chance you both will have common interest in other video games you casually play.

If you find someone you may be interested in forming a future connection with, don’t be afraid to send them a friend request. You don’t have to play a match with that person every session but it does open future possibilities rather than hoping you both bump into each other next time you play.

But you probably already know this if you are a avid gamer. The only issue you may have is how to maintain a line of communication with someone after you play a game session with someone.

There is nearly a community, large or small, for every type of video game out there. We encourage you to join the smaller communities first because you will be noticed easier, but find regardless by simply joining a community of people who play the same game you love, you can eventually form a united session of where you play the same game daily.

The APP World

You don’t have to rely on apps to find the love of your life but also a potential best friend. As it has been commonly known to download an app to find a date, mainstream media hasn’t put a big emphasis on using one to speak to someone. If you interested in looking for possible apps to make friends online:

Bumble BFF (like a dating app, but for friends)

Meetup (for finding events where you meet other like-minded friends)

Friender (interest-based “friend dating” app)

InterPals (learn or teach a second language through casual conversation with new friends/penpals)

ATLETO (if you’re looking for a friend to do your favorite sport with)

Hey! VINA (for women looking for female friends)

Peanut (for moms looking for other mom-friends)

Meet My Dog (for dog owners wanting to meet other dog owners)

Keep in mind when you do match with someone on one of these friendship platforms, don’t come on too strong and keep in mind to build a friendship casually through feeding each other small samples at a time.

When you meet someone exciting online, you can become eager to try to meet with them immediately. There is nothing wrong with asking someone out, but don’t be disappointed if they said no or maybe. Some people need extra time to feel comfortable with meeting someone for the first time and they can be scared.

If you suffer from shyness, think of anything that ignites your own interests in a conversation. Let them know about some of your hobbies and experiences you would like to share with someone.

Life Tips to Keep in Mind

When you select the community you want to interact with, a few basic principals to keep in mind are to give the person you relate with big expectations of how they should be.

You set yourself up for failure when you assume someone you meet is perfect and everything you want in a friend. They are not going to be perfect and will make mistakes along the way. They might forget your birthday, your last name or what you are allergic too. What’s important to some people may not be important to others.

Keep your messages as long as the other person you’re speaking to. You can easily overwhelm someone if you reply to them with a novel length answer.

If you are looking for ways to make yourself more interesting in a conversation, simply look into finding commonalities. Examples are what kind of movies you both like, video games you like to play, or countries you’d like to visit. Use your advantage to read someone’s profile and history to see what they like to do and bring them up.

Avoid asking genetic questions that leads nowhere or one worded answers. Ask about the other person’s life, their passion, their past or what they desire for the future.