my social butterfly mother taught me about a "fake-ness" that's worked well for me in situations like this: when you talk to them, follow every opportunity that reveals something about themselves (eg "you mentioned that you liked the color blue, i kinda like it too because of X, why do you like it?") and do it even if it bores you and you grasp at straw to keep the conversation going. people love talking about themselves and love it even more with an audience that seems into it and, at the end, either your crush will be dispelled or now your crush is aware of you.
if they act odd after that; then they don't feel the same way about you that you feel about them and move on. if they do feel the same way about you OR if they don't, but they still like you; they'll likewise look for an excuse to tell you more about themselves.
This dude just casually handing out the secret to being a good conversationalist. Ask questions, listen to the answers and follow them like a trail of breadcrumbs. All of a sudden you're having a conversation, and you won't be worrying about your courage
At least in my age range most of the profiles are pretty generic, asking about stuff in them usually results in bare minimum generic responses or no response at all
Wow, that's pretty dire. I have tried dating apps and didn't really ever find much luck in them and started looking in places where dating isn't the goal instead like hobbies or common community spaces and slowly building relationships that way.
I've been thinking of doing that, tried some clubs in my area but it was mostly people in their 40s+
Kinda want to try get into climbing, I'm in the gym a lot anyway and I think most of them come with gym memberships too, I hear it's quite diverse but also not sure how social it is
Normal gym for sure feels like everyone wants to be left alone