Find a community!

People are still meeting other people. I have a good community with a great library and a park district. They offer many sports and other programs. Right now, I'm busy doing everything with my kid but intend to join some stuff on my own once he is more independent.

Science, book, and sports communities are amazing for meeting people. Then you just pick who you vibe with and see if they are open to hang out outside of the group setting.

This hasn't worked very well for me, but I think this sort of advice is a lot like "seek therapy" -- it's not strictly bad or good, but different people have different outcomes. In other words, I don't want to downplay the advice, since for certain it will be good advice for some people. It just hasn't been successful for me.

> Then you just pick who you vibe with

This is the problem, though. So many hobby clubs and societies have pre-existing cliques, you don't get to pick - you get selected if they deign, or excluded if not.

I've felt lonelier in many societies than on my own, if that makes sense.