Friendship Services, Apps San Francisco Bay Area
Friend Apps Silicon Valley, Bay Area Friendship Apps; Which Service Is Best? Should You Use Any At All? San Francisco Friend Groups
Be sure to sign up for my free weekly newsletter of events and things to do each week (22,000+ subscribers): food, drinks, classes, pop-ups, shows, talks, live music, street fairs, festivals, galas, book stuff, art openings, speed friend events, date ideas & more.
Can’t wait to get the newsletter? Upgrade today and become a paid supporter. Users receive all events (event ones beyond the week) plus lots of bonuses (specific groups to explore meet people, make friends organically and more).
Related Reads On Eddie’s List
Social Groups Bay Area (Clubs To Join To Make Friends)
Hard Making Friends Post-COVID Era
It’s gotten more difficult to meet people, make friends, and build relationships and it’s not just in the Bay Area. People are working more, commuting longer, stressed about the world, having growing concerns about jobs and AI, or are are more isolated now than ever.
COVID did a number on the social fabric of our society. We have a generation of youth who missed out on a few prime years of growth, socializing and developing skills to communicate with others. For others, isolation during the pandemic caused some folks to regress and become less social. In many cases, people have experienced a decrease in close friendships either because one or more parties moved to the suburbs for more space, moved away to more affordable area, got divorced or drew the line during the last political cycle.
People took for granted how delicate friendships are and simple things like not going into the office, losing a job, moving across a bridge or getting into/out of a relationship has altered the friendships we thought were once impenetrable.
Bay Area Loneliness, Difficulty Making Friends
If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you might feel it’s harder making friends here than in other places, and that is partially true. The things that make it harder here than in other places are the weather (rain, fog, cold of SF), WFH (fewer opportunities to meet organically), overly relying on apps/technology, high cost of living, competitive environment to hustle, and abundance of introverted personalities and more.
You can only blame the environment and surroundings so much before you have to look inward. A good portion of folks, struggling to make friends, are looking for hacks and shortcuts to obtain BFF’s. Some examples of this are low-effort, vague posts on social media asking for friends. It helps to be specific about your demographics (age, location) and your interests (hobbies, passions and more).
Other folks may also be selfish in their intentions and only want friends now because they are single, lost their job, relocated, or similar. They are looking to take and not give necessarily. One should seek friends to invest in others, give of themselves not just fill a void in their lives.
All relationships in life are about give and take. If you have no hobbies, interests, time, passion or effort, it’s going to be exponentially harder for others to give you their time, energy and focus. There is a lot of self-work needed to increase your chances of meeting others, having things to talk about and developing a purpose to keep in touch.
Bay Area Friendship Services Review, Comparison
If you spend any time on social media, one of the biggest topics is around the difficulty of making friends. It’s gotten the attention of major dating apps so much that they are branching out or just expanding/diluting their focus to be an all-encompassing app for meeting people without any intention.
There are now a handful of services with investors backing the latest loneliness trend. There are apps, groups, courses, bootcamps and more addressing the growing demand to make (order friends). If you think they are all the same, you are wrong.
Below is an overview of a few local services in the Bay Area (mostly San Francisco) (fees, audiences, structures), as well as my advice on whether you should give any of them a shot. If you want me to look into a service, let me know.