How do you make friends?

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I've tried "friendly small talk", social skill groups and "being myself." None of that seems to work! I never know what to talk about once I an barely get past asking what's up. A lot of times I get tempted to talk about my lame obsessions, but I know I'll get carried away and bore the other person to death or just make a fool of myself. I'm homeschooled right now. I couldn't make friends at my school anyways. I also don't feel like I belong in the autism community. That's why I don't post much on wrong planet.

Maybe joining a class or a sports club might help, If you have a mutual interest, there is more cause for a friendship as opposed to simply walking up to someone and having a random chat.

Of course you belong here and I hope you don't feel uncomfortable posting here.

I don't really know either, but I made many friends through internet fora like this one. Maybe if you could find one are one of your interests, you could meet someone who would also like to talk about it? I don't know, it's what happened with me and, er... all my current friendly acquaintances, actually.

i wish somebody would tell me as well. i havent had friends for about 12 years.

I'm usually drawn to people who are either very similar to me or are the overly nice, motherly type of person. I usually just approach them and if we get along it kind of goes along from there.

You don't just label somebody a friend. A friend is someone that you feel comfortable doing things with.

Do you know what "comfort" is?

I didn't realize until maybe a few months ago.

If you feel nervous or anxious or start sweating, even, that means you're not comfortable, and probably the other person isn't either.

If you see people a bunch of different places, it'll come easier.

Join community groups and lessons. It's a lot easier, also, if you went to a school.

GO TO CHURCH TOO!!XD
Get a job.
Etc.

Find a group that resonates with you. For me, I spent my first semester in college floundering around trying to make friends through the usual be yourself and small talk, and it never worked. I was just too different that it was hard for me to connect to most people. I eventually found most of my friends through a club that is more on the geeky side of things. It was the environment that really pushed me forward, and not so much forcing myself to meet new people.

i am able to befriend only people who are just like me very quite, depressed etc
mostly extroverts avoid me and smart people find me dull

keep talking with many people around you, sit outside the house during evenings you may find someone who will start talking with you

Similar interests more or less for the most part..though sometimes that does not work out too well.

I make friends almost as fast as glaciers slice through the Earth.

Similar loves and clubs are what have worked for me. All my friends enjoy witty banter and dirty humor equally and have an interesting in alternative metal.

Then there's Warhammer club...that has helped greatly.

Finding friends overall is a pain. Luckily 3 usually suffices for any given situation.

Oh over here it's simple, you just have to rant about everything government-related and the country's absurdism.

Most all the offline friends I had were people I worked with & we weren't really friends for a long while because I was very focused on doing my job

Not that I'm an expert at friend-making, but from my experience success is much more likely if you see the person regularly- (in school, residence, at a club, etc) and often, for a long period of time.

For me, if it's not often enough (eg. classes that are only for an hour once a week), people have outside lives and won't attribute much importance to you or the situation in which they know you.

If it's not for a long enough period of time (eg. a semester in university is only 3.5 months), it's easy to lose contact with people and never see them again, much less actually get to know them.


Edt: this post is biased by my tendency to wait until the other person seems to consider me a friend...