Do You Make Friends With Strangers?

No, I don't really like to converse with strangers, more so as I've gotten older.

 

I used to but I'm more shy/introverted as I've gotten older for some reason.

 

If I'm standing next to some folks anywhere and the conversation just begs for a relative response or especially a funny response--I say it. It has to be GOOD, though. Friends---don't remember when I last made one. Maybe back in the 60s-70s when I opened up.

 

Is it even possible to make a friend with someone who wasn't a stranger to you at some point?

 

The point is, can you walk up to a stranger and make friends with them, as in right then while nothing else like another friend or a work place or them being a neighbour kinda hooked it up,,, as I read it anyway.
Every friend I have made was obviously a stranger before I met them but there was a circumstance that usually caused it to become a friendship like working with them for a best example or a friend introducing them to me.

 

In that case then, no.
Strangers find it easy to walk up to me and start talking but very rarely do I even acknowledge a stranger. Unless I have to talk to someone I won't.

 

I try joining different clubs/activities and such, just a once a week music class, or language class, or anything, and you will meet people, and likely find some chemistry with people as they already have a similar interest

 

I make friends really easily. I'm super outgoing, and I'm pretty good at making people feel like they can open up around me.

 

my understanding is that humans, like nearly all living things, are made by a biological process. one which, granted, is frequently undertaken by those having no particularly great skill in doing so.

friendship, is something found, generally by other means then manufacture.

 

I plan on making the time to do this soonish. I did mean making friends with random people who end up in your path...part of it is that my neighborhood is constantly changing and I think I stopped connecting to people because of that...thinking "they're not going to be here long anyway". I had a few great friends and they moved.

I also agree that really great friends continue that connection after a long distance, but I have almost zero in-person friends and the in-between time, online and phone relationshps don't really work for me. I need more local friendships.

 

Yes, and it feels perfectly normal to go down to the park and play a game of pick-up basketball (or football) with perfect strangers which occasionally leads to friendship. If there aren't enough players we’ll all get into our cars and drive to the nearest court without even giving it a second thought that we don’t necessarily know each other.


Hotwater

 

You saying that made me consider how guys are more apt to make new acquaintances that women because of your activities.

 

Idk Quiet Storm...I don't know a lot of guys who are active like hotwater is...it seems that women are more active, though I could be wrong there.

 

it seems to me that ONLY guys are active like hotwater is.

not that women aren't active, but at least in my work experience, women come to do their cardio, and almost every other physical activity, such as pickup sports for example, is done almost exclusively by men.

 

Idk...maybe if you hang out at a gym. I see women doing things like dance classes, yoga, wall climbing, running and swimming, things of that nature...I do see women playing tennis and biking, horseback riding, etc. but probably not as much as men play actual sports, like basketball, soccer and such.

 

Acquaintances yes, but it’s harder to form long lasting friendships



Hotwater

 

well, my workplace is like half gym, so yeah that's part of it. and like you said, women there do things like dance classes, other aerobic type classes, running, biking, lap swimming, water aerobics. so like i said, they do their cardio, and yes, also yoga/pilates, and in a slightly less stereotypical direction, there's a good number of them that do martial arts. but then men do all those things too, along with weight lifting, sports, boating, etc.

overall, it seems like the two genders are really about equally active, just that men are active in a wider variety of activities and women have a more specific set of activities that they do.

 

to me this still sounds horribly grewsome.
like gluing people together to make some physical construct.

friends are found, not made.
MAKING anything with/out of people, just self deception, and/or yuck scream.

 

I wouldn't use those words. But I understand what you are saying.

Some people say "I will do this and make some new friends".
My view is "well the people there might not be nice, might not want new friends, and your friendship might not be a real one".

I distinguish "socialising" and "friendship". I used to go out with say a dozen people at once. But I didn't kid myself they were all friends.

And I also distinguish transient friends from real, permanent ones.
For instance, a work associate might not be a true friend ie in the sense of permanence.

 

I'm an American. I grew up being told not to talk to them.