9 Low Pressure Ways to Hang Out with New Friends

New friends! What lovely two words. If you’re a bit of an introvert like me though, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed at the thought of spending more time with people you don’t know too well.
Here are 3 tips on ways to make any hang out session low pressure, even with the most acquaintance-y of acquaintances.
1. Bring multiple people. Whatever the activity ends up being, it’s easier and more chill if multiple people are there. This works especially well if some of them know each other a little bit too. For me, 2 to 4 is an ideal number. Because you can get to know people without needing to be talking the whole time.
2. Do something that has an outward focus. Sitting and eating dinner, staring back at each other can be super awkward. Because you’re forced to talk. And if these are people you don’t know well, things are probably not at the stage where you all feel fully comfortable sitting in silence. Something like a trip to a museum or a walk through a park works best because if there’s silence, it’s just because you all are looking at different things.
9 activities I like to fall back on:
- Go to a museum
- Cook a meal
- Have a scavenger hunt in a store or mall
- Walk by a monument or statue in town
- Go to a fair
- Volunteer or write cards for cool causes
- Make an artsy craft or DIY
- Wander through a mall
- Take a hike
3. Don’t do something that requires no personal attention. Hopefully, you’re hanging out with these people because you genuinely like them and want to get to know them better. If you go to a movie or doing something that’s going to put you on your phones the entire time, you run the risk of missing out on their company. Routes like these, while enticing because of how low pressure they are, can end up feeling like you didn’t hang out with your new squad at all.
And in all of this remember — it’s not that big of a deal. These are just people, and hanging out with them is supposed to be a getaway from normal day-to-day life. Don’t put strain on yourself about it. Even if you feel a little awkward or out of place, trust that things are going fine, and know that your friends are glad you’re there. Meeting new people isn’t about doing the right thing on the first hangout, it’s about sticking around for the second.
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