The app that has entirely adapted the game of modern dating.
In society, there is a common realisation that attending university will be the best years of your life. Alongside getting an education and a piece of paper to show for it, there is an expectation that you will make life-long friends where one day you will all sit down and reminisce about the good ol’ days. While this may be true for some places, the University of Auckland is notorious for its lack of student community.
Want proof? There is a constant bombardment of confessionals among anonymous Facebook groups to the likes of UoA confessions, wherein people pour their hearts out about loneliness, and generally a real sense of social dissatisfaction. Recently, a confessional pointed out the stark contrast between UoA and AUT, purely to the fact that people were socialising. This is a huge issue! Student life is essential to the glorification of university but the divide of competition and connection are pulling people apart. Consequently, this is also one of the greater reasons people transfer away, as time and time again, people are having to reintroduce themselves to strangers and join more clubs than they can count, only to have a fickle strand of familiarity remain.
This is where Bumble Friends come in. In a nutshell, it’s an extension of Bumble where instead of swiping for dates, you’re swiping for friends. Being that this is my second year, I realised that I had yet to retain a solid group of friends and because of this, I turned to the app to see if I would get some local success. I knew that there is a process of trial and error after having previously used it overseas but six months later, I now have an awesome group of friends who I can rely on, and hope that they can rely on me.
Here are the details and more:
Bumble Friends
The Holy Grail! If you’ve already got the app, just click into settings and you can change preferences between dating, friends and business. Already this app has racked up a safer reputation for the women, so, extending that to meet other like-minded people? Pretty genius if you ask me.
Meetup
Additionally, this app is also great for meeting like-minded people in the form of social events and clubs. There’s everything ranging from groups by demographics, sport interests, creative outlets and more, designed for you to chat with those around. Some groups do have small fees, others don’t, so it’s worth having a look to see if anything catches the eye.
Networking
This one is plain and simple. To those people you actually do meet in classes, don’t be afraid to invite them out outside of class. We all complain about the quality of our friendships at some point, so it’s just as likely they’re sitting on the same boat as you. All you need to do is ask.