Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[tompliss]

Hey guys,

I want random encounters in my life ....

Basically, that's it.
How do you meet people ?

I am finishing my engineering school, and am currently doing an internship. In a city far away from the school. Far away from anyone I know.
I'm the classic geek (wouldn't be in this forum, otherwise...). Asocial, shy, and won't go in a pub alone...
There are nearly no "young" people in my company, except some girls I'm too shy to talk with.
I have nearly no interest in sports, cinema, or those type of things I could find a club about.

Everytime I met new friends in my life was at school (quite onviously), with them coming to me, and in my previous internships, when boys working in the company and being 2 or 3 years older than me invited my to lunch with them ...
I simply don't know how to meet new people ...

Help ? 

[Max White]

How do you meet people ?

except some girls I'm too shy to talk with.

You need to reconsider what the problem is. It isn't about finding people, it is about talking to them.
These girls? Just try to treat them like friends. Don't expect anything, don't assume you deserve anything, just try to relate to another human. Assuming you have some level of confidence, it might go pretty darn well.

What have you got to loose?

[sjm9876]

just walk up to them, say hi and introduce youself.

 if that's really too awkward, try lampshading it. As in, 'hi, i don't know you, what's your name' (NOTE: DO NOT TAKE THIS SUGGESTION SERIOUSLY. unless you really want to.)

Maybe see if one of them reads a book or something and ask about that. Having something to talk about always helps.

For meeting people, try going into a crowded coffee shop and asking someone who looks like a safe person for the seat next to them. Again with the book thing.

[DJ]

These girls? Just try to treat them like friends.

Yeah, that's not very useful for someone who has trouble making new friends.

[Azthor]

You could have just have greeted everyone you came across in the company and it'd have come off as perfectly normal, not to mention it'd have made for a great first impression. That and, at the stage I am led to assume you are in life, age shouldn't really be that much of a deterrent to meeting new people.

Take the time to greet others day-to-day and, even if you are not willing to take the initiative, someone will eventually bait you into a proper conversation. People who seem uncomfortable with approaching others tend to make others uncomfortable with approaching them and the reverse holds true too, after all, the others are only as human as you are, insecurities included.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Say 'hi' to everyone you meet, it makes people like you a crazy amount.

[Starver]

How do you meet people ?

Basically, I don't.  I'm very reserved.  I have a smiling mask to greet people with...

However, you made me think that Geohashing might be the answer for you, if you're lucky and in the right area.  First of all there may be others in your area who actively do this (who you might meet, either by pre-arranged consensus or by happenstance on the same 'mission'), and then even if there aren't any like-minded souls (you might be in an area without other regulars active) there's new "civilians" you might get to bump into as you pursue any given daily goal.  Then you just need to break the ice to explain what you're doing.  (If you're confident enough, and there's no possible dangers in doing so, this could include smoozing yourself into someone back garden...  Been there, done that.  Although it is very much against my own introverted nature to try.)


But, ultimately, your post persuades me that I also really ought to get out more.  In a "socialising" manner, rather than just "outdoors".  I really am not the ideal demonstration model for overcoming social obscurity.  (Apart from waffling away on random bulletin boards, where "everybody knows your pseudonym" (potentially, at least), but the real me stays firmly in the shadows.)