Can dating apps help us make more friends?

After regularly spending time in Swansea, far away from her native Canada, Amy Rae said she felt “frustrated” by the difficulty of making new friends.

The 29-year-old often spends time with her boyfriend while he studies in Wales, but says she struggles to find people with the same interests as her.

After she started documenting her efforts to meet people on TikTok, it wasn’t until one of her videos went viral that Amy realized she wasn’t alone in how she was feeling.

“I got a little frustrated because I was finding it difficult and I thought, ‘Okay, I have nothing to lose,’” she said.

Amy posted videos of herself meeting strangers on sunset beach walks, visiting board game cafes and attending a local art class.

“People thought the art class video was funny because there were a lot of older women in the group and I couldn’t find people,” she said.

This was the video that went viral, especially among other young people who felt the same way as Amy.

“On that video alone there were probably thousands of comments from people saying they were having trouble making friends,” Amy said. “I’ve never seen so much interest.”

She then started a Facebook group for people going through the same experience as her, which has now grown to thousands of members.

Dedicated online groups that encourage people to step out of their comfort zones and meet other people are starting to grow in popularity, with apps such as Bumble BFF and Meetup being used solely for the purpose of making friends.

Professor Andrea Wigfield, director of the Center for Loneliness Studies at the University of Sheffield, said she can see these apps becoming the norm in the same way that dating apps have become.

“You can have connections with hundreds of people, but if you don’t have that one meaningful relationship with someone, you can feel lonely,” she said.

In 2022, 49.63% of adults in Britain reported feeling lonely sometimes, sometimes, often or always. according to the Campaign to End Loneliness.

“Young people tend to lack the confidence to go out and actually make friends and even strike up conversations with other people,” says Prof Wigfield.

“So I see online apps would facilitate that.”

Swathi Padmanabhan, 25, who lives in Swansea but works from home, joined Amy’s Facebook group after struggling to make friends herself.

“I didn’t know anyone when I moved here, but now I have a great group of people,” she said.

“Working from home is very tiring, especially at the end of the day, because if you don’t have meetings, you don’t interact with people.

“It’s really good to have someone to go out with and do something that isn’t work, especially from a mental health perspective.”

Research by the Co-Op Foundation notes that 62% of lonely young people say that loneliness makes them lose confidence in themselves.

For Amy, meeting friends online has given her a way to reach a new community.

“I know that many people are lonely, and that it can be dark and rainy here for much of the year. So it can be quite miserable if you’re inside all the time and have no one to do things with.

“It feels good to know that people are coming out.”