Gaming. I’m in my 30s and the 30s was the age bracket I’ve heard where few can carry on gaming through, because it has a tendency to die here. I piss away so much time doing other things that gaming just takes a backseat. I’m not even married or have kids.
The big driver for my socialization used to be, “I want this person to like me,” and it gave me a lot of motivation to interact and also gave me a goal, “how do I get this person to like me?” All subconsciously, of course.
I’m struggling to come up with another reason to socialize, especially with people who are still playing that game.
Find people for a specific thing you want to do. For example, people to comfortably talk about important shit with (the confidants), people to do activities together (the RPG party members), and people to send memes and just hang out with casually (the couch crew).
Pro tip: when looking for a life partner, you should ideally both be able to fulfill all three roles at different times and enjoy it