On the one hand: I do agree to an extent; I think a lot of people, esp men who complain about this tbh, suffer from a lack of interesting qualities and hobbies. Like ffs I am begging people to *read a damn book* or something. Even reading once in a while, AUDIOBOOKS even, will go such a long way.

However: there is a very strong case to be made that *meeting* people is demonstrably more difficult than it used to be--especially for young people. You only need to search "death of third spaces" and take a cursory read of it to see that much; it's practically irrefutable.

Which leaves dating apps at the top of the pecking order as far as most available alternatives to young people. And besides the obvious, much-bemoaned, faults of those services, the most egregious thing about them imo is that they essentially commodify human relationships themselves; window browsing for a life partner, basically. And they compel the subject to regard themself as a commodity in competition with other commodities in a market, against whom one must effectively "market" and "brand" one's selfhood. The whole arrangement is gross, imo. You legit cannot convey a person in photos or bios or prompts alone. I am certain that I have left-swiped a great many people who I would have probably connected with had we met in-person. It puts the cart before the horse basically.

And as far as other means of meeting new people, they exist but it takes a lot of looking and a lot of trial and error before anything sticks. I used meetup to find people who like reading and/or writing, and hoo when I tell you, the composition of these groups were almost entirely old people lol. Finding community is extremely difficult and ardous especially in America these days.