Is it too late to develop a social life in your mid 20s if you never had one prior?

I had a social life in college, but in my early 20s I moved across the country and had to start from scratch. So I knew how to be friends with people but not how to make friends.

Of course it's possible. You can make friends at any age. Just don't look to tv and movies to define what a "social life" is. It'll probably be more sparse and less stable than sitcoms would have you believe.

The best way to start is to take up a hobby that involves interacting with real people.

It's definitely harder after college, but not impossible. You're just going to have to put in a bit of effort. The two best recommendations I can make are:

1. getting involved in some kind of hobby that's either inherently social (board games, team sports, etc.) or puts you together in the same place with other hobbyists (I've done a lot of socializing at rock climbing gyms, despite it technically being a solo thing)
2. working a job that forces you to socialize in small doses (hospitality, customer service, etc). Being thrust into micro interactions dozens of times a day makes it a lot easier to approach people in casual settings.

No it’s not too late! I didn’t start branching out and making new friends outside of the ones I made in high school until I was about 28. I got in touch more with acquaintances and started going out to bars. It wasn’t immediate and you have to be ok with having days that it doesn’t work, and show up repeatedly and you can start knowing people. You also should feel ok with the fact that not everyone will be super close friends and that it can take time, and that’s ok. You are allowed to exist in public spaces just like everyone else. The first few times I went out I didn’t talk to anyone at all. Nowadays I can go out and have days I don’t talk to anyone or meet anyone new or see anyone I know, but that is also ok. It’s a numbers game and you have to just keep going and get comfortable with checking in with your feelings and accepting when you feel social and when you don’t and accepting when things don’t turn out how you want and just appreciating being human and being out in the world. Go to cafes and listen to music and read books, go to bars and strike up conversations when you’re inspired, become a regular, ask people’s names, strike up casual conversation, accept awkwardness as part of the process and just keep moving forward! I now have multiple circles of friends that I’m close with to varying degrees and usually see someone I know when I go out. Work on your hobbies and career when you’re not socializing to have things to talk about and relate to, and be curious about other people and their lives. Most of the time at bars other people are also there to socialize, and you absolutely do not have to drink to be welcome at a bar. Do virgin drinks, sodas, water, pineapple soda, and ask the bartenders their choices in non alcoholic drinks. And also get comfortable with the fact that sometimes you’ll encounter sour apples while you are out, and don’t let them discourage you from going out to meet good people. Not everyone will be nice or fun or enjoyable, but that’s just part of it as well.

I hope so, otherwise I'm fucked.

Depends on circumstances a lot. It's easy if you're in college/work with similar people. Otherwise it might be hard to start, especially if you don't have a lot of free time.

I moved a lot alone and had to make a new social life a lot. during school, for high school, for college, then jobs, then moved country. Except for last one where I knew a few people every other case I had 0 friends carried over. Hardest to have a social life was during the time I was working on jobs as the ability to meet new people decreased a lot.

So basically it is hard when you don't goto college and job where you are forced to spend time with people, but that can also sometimes makes it hard to hangout with the same people outside of work.

So far things that have worked out for me:

• People with same interest that you randomly meet sometimes.
• keep your social media connected and when you see stories of people doing things you like strike a conversation about it. Don't force to have full convo, just say your piece about that story and leave it be if it doesn't go any farther. Small talks just sharing some sentences are good starting points. If it happens a few time with same person you might find someone you have common things with.
• try some group activities that doesn't have to have a lot of talking. Something you can be present there just doing your thing, it could be local recreational sports group, volunteering, library, etc.
• friends of friends, statistically your friends in average have more friends than you, so just hangout with them in group activities, and try to make new connections. You have to start somewhere.
• online friends, sometimes it just helps to have people to talk to, careful on who you're hanging out with, but fandoms and such online are good to make friends that you can talk to without responsibilities of maintaining a relationship. It'll help you be more open on sharing your interests.

A good way is to find a meetup group with some shared interest. It doesn't really matter what so long as the crowd is good and you know enough to hold a conversation in the subject.

No, not at all! As you grow older, it may not be as automatic as when you are in school. Many of the people that you interact with might be focused on their own stuff (work, partner, family, hobbies, finance) and not too motivated to expand or even have a "social life" in whatever free time they have (if they even do). But this is not everyone. There is still a lot of people at every age that do want a social life, you just need to put in a bit of effort to connect with them.

And, a tip, do not consider failed attempts at socializing as a "failure" on your side. Perceived rejection often boils down to people being very attached to their free time, and socializing not being on their list of priorities. If you keep this in mind then you do not need to feel discomfort from rejection, and you can be active in your search for like-minded people without worry.

Mid-20s is honestly the perfect time to start

It's never too late.

Dude, it's literally never too late. x3

There's old people fuck-a-thons in retirement homes for heaven's sake, lol. And those people are almost a century old.

Get on meetup.com if you aren't sure what's out there, but there's all sorts of fun stuff going on! Meetup is platonic.

Nah. You can make friends at any age. Most of it comes down to showing interest in the person you want to befriend and asking them about themselves.

Imo as an ADHD person this world best for me. The hard part is finding the interesting person I wanna befriend. Most have happened casually through games or events. If you board game. Or pickle ball. Or shit join a cooking class. Good chance you'll be interested in someone in the bunch.

My experience has been that you basically restart the process of building a new social circle every few years. Life circumstances change. People move away. Some relationships grow apart. Some start families. So there's always going to be others in the same boat as you looking for new connections.

Absolutely. I was an absolute loner for the better part of a decade. Then my depression just disappeared. I joined a community around a streamer and had loads of fun. Just find the intersection between your preferred subject (literary analysis, anime tiddies, etc.) and your preferred communication method. (Text forum, voice chat, real life meetings, etc.) You'll find at least someone you can hang with, maybe more. Just go at it with openness and joy.

My 20s were complete garbage. I can't remember most of what happened there because nothing ever happened. At the end I didn't see any hope for myself and had some disturbing thoughts. But I've come around somehow and met my now best friends and many other nice people during my 30s. I owe them my life basically. Though I still have trouble finding romantic connection and I'm not trying anymore.

Where I meet people: At work, neighbors, hiking or board game groups

I think it's important to get out and meet many different people, even without ever becoming friends. You learn social skills, you have more things to talk about with others, you feel more accepted in general, it's a spiral upwards.

I was the same, then I went to a lot of places: classes at community college and community centers, worked in restaurants, cafes, retail stores, and stayed at Airbnbs that were crowded like hostels. Sometimes you get talking with a co-worker or roommate, then get invited to a party and maybe find new friendships there.

The most difficult part is keeping your privacy respected. Normals will require you congregate on some proprietary, data-thieving platform to participate.

When I hear "social life", "romantic", and "platonic" right next to each other like that, I think "social life" is code for spitting game. If that's the case I'll let you know when I figure it out

My most social years were in my 30's!

I've had close to 0 social life in high school and the first year of college.
What turned me around was joining a board game club.

What I've learned from this experience is that everyone
has a minimum and maximum amount of time and slots for friendships
and newcomers are the ones most likely with empty friendships slots.

Of course it's not too late, it only appears harder because in school we spent a lot of time during the week with many people the same age. But only a fraction of that time is needed, all it takes is being around people and talking to people.

Many on lemmy rightly complain of the lack of "third spaces" nowadays in many of the richer countries (you said college I'm guessing US or UK?), so for example in many places it'd be a bit weird to just go to the pub alone. But you can also just go alone and do and enjoy whatever you want, it just takes a bit more confidence, the embarassment of it usually wears off with age for most.

What's probably easier is joining some semi-regular activity where you get to chat. So pub quiz night, language exchange, chess club, hiking group, etc... are more likely to aid you in this compared to loud night clubs, the gym, or whatever, it's all subjective it's still important to do the stuff you enjoy, regardless of socializing.

Mid 20s? You're barely out of your teenage years, of course you can. Now if anyone has some tips for mid 40s...

I romanticize when I was in my mid twenties lamenting how old I was. Just fucking do what you think you ought to do and stop asking the retards on Lemmy for permission.

No its not too late

I used to, when I had fun neighbours my age that I made through an online Buy Nothing group. If you just start indulging in social groups related to your interests, you're bound to meet people. It's up to you if you want to socialize more with those people.

Unfortunately, no one will force you to hang out with them (except red flag weirdos), so a lot of the effort needs to come from you. If you get flaked on/deprioritized/ignored/ghosted more than once or twice, that's the cue to move on and try someone else so you don't get your hopes up.

Congrats on graduating! And to answer your question: no, it's not too late. However, fair warning: it does seem to get harder to develop a social life the older you get. But by no means impossible.

Of course you can, it just requires more work. Find a group of like-minded people by joining a evening class; group training; volunteer at an event; etc..

It requires a lot of effort, but it'll be worth it in the end.

Find a hobby you like and look for local groups of people / classes in that hobby. With time you will make personal connections with people in that group.

Could be workouts, activism, trekking, board games, knitting, book club, debates. Anything that does not involve staring at a screen.

Absolutely! And in fact, pretty good time to do so. A lot of ppl are transitioning from school to work at your age, so finding new interesting friends etc.

That being said, making and nurturing friends is work and you may be a bit out of practice. No worries, just be ready to feel a bit out of your depth or nervous at times, knowing is half the battle. Plus, I think your cohort/age group are way more open with talking about enotional intelligence and friendship and the awkwardness of making new friends, which is super helpful.

Mate life full of ups and downs. Join hobbies and what not, and remember to strike a balance of effort with fun. All fun can limit your choices, all effort makes it not worth it.

no

It's totally possible to build a new network of great friends at literally any point in your life! I have moved multiple times over the years to entirely different regions where I knew zero people and I have always eventually found new friends. (I'm also autistic and introverted, so if I can do it, most people probably can.)

Sometimes it might take a while to find the activities you like, and thus the people who share your interests, but they're out there! If nothing else, it helps to start going on a regular basis to a local bar that hosts live music and just nurse a drink (even a soda if you're sober) and hang out, you'll start sussing out the social fabric in the area pretty quick.

Good luck, you can do it!

no, if you had the ability to create one and chose not to.

also no, if you didn't have the ability, realize that and start working at the reasons why. (in my case it turned out to be autism).