Comment by sureglymop
10 months ago
You're just defining your own fate here if you think 24 is so much older and different than 16. But also, perhaps your situation now would be different without the grind you went through? Instead of regretting anything I think you could just try to enjoy your youth now.
Meeting people is 10x harder when you’re an adult. Missing the boat on social groups in my younger years has made it extremely difficult to meet people and establish a social circle. Mid twenties is when people tend to pair up long term as well, and you’re not really going to see friends often when they have a spouse. Mid twenties is absolutely different to late teens.
I missed the boat on that too. I'm your age but I know that it's possible to meet people, it just takes some real effort.
I made a new friend at a hackathon recently. Since you're here on hacker news you could try attending events such as programming meetups, hackathons, tech workshops, conventions etc. It's easier to bond when there are mutual interests.
Otherwise try joining some sports related club, e.g. a local gymnastics or football club or even just a jogging group.
It is different but there are people who want to hang out, even if in the context of doing some other activity.
Honestly it’s easier to meet people you have things in common with in adulthood because you’re forced to engage in activities to meet people rather than just meeting whatever random people you’re around.
But a lot of people sit around and have zero social hobbies and claim it’s hard to meet people in adulthood.