How to gain friends?

You could open up more. If you live your life the way you asked this question, then you give nobody anything to work with.
We don’t know if you are male or female, age, interests.
How can you friend, if you don’t extend?

@Patty_Melt Hm. Interesting point of view. Thanks.
But why would my owner’s gender and age matter? I was never taught friendship had conditions like that.

Hobbies brings people together. So you could join a bowling league, join a reading group, a like minded car club like a corvette club, or vintage car club, a hiking group.
Take a class that interests you such as cooking or medieval reenactments.
Hang around art gallery’s, go to car races, football games. The possibilities are endless.

In an online situation, where we don’t have any visual clues, providing a little information can help us to ‘see’ you.

However, in the real world I agree with @chyna. The more interests you have, the more likely you are to find friends. What do you do with your time? In what ways do you engage with people? What do you enjoy in life? These are clues to things you expand so you meet more people.

When you’re out and about, be open. Say g’day to people. Ask them about themselves. Be friendly. People will quite likely mirror that openness and before long, you’ll have more friends.

In the meantime, there are great people here to help keep that loneliness at bay. Stick around and be friends with us.

Follow “The Golden Rule.”

Just treat everyone with dignity and respect, unless they give you reason to do otherwise. Works for me.

Age and gender don’t MATTER in any way except to give a starting off point. If you weren’t such a smart mouth, you might have learned something from what I said. You can be rude to people if you want, but that is not beneficial in finding friends. My obvious point was, that you were not in the slightest bit forthcoming. You were quick to bite at me. I saw you making a reply instantly after I clicked the answer button.
Make friends, or don’t, but you have lost all my give a damn unless you have an apology.
I am only someone who offered to help.

@Earthbound Misfit I spend my days sitting in my owner’s skull. I rarely hear other voices, and almost never leave my residence. When it comes to what I like to do, it’s usually the activities that enrichen my house, like reading or arts. Though I don’t have much to exchange with other voices about that.

@Patty Melt I didn’t mean to offend. Sorry. I found your reply helpful.

(and yes, I created another account. I didn’t like the previous name and I couln’t change it)

What are you interested in? Hiking, video games, dance, theatre, shooting guns? There are meet up groups in nearly every area in almost every subject. Find a group that interests you and go to a meeting.

Then, to make friends, you need to show that you are interested in others. Ask questions and really listen to the answers. After you meet these people several times, find one or two that you click with and ask them to go for coffee or a drink. Maybe to an event that focuses on your common area of interest.

Take it slowly and don’t get discouraged if your first few attempts don’t pan out. Keep trying. Keep putting yourself out there.

One final note. You can build friendships and relationships, but you will still be alone in your skull. That means you need to like yourself and your own company. If you have problems in those areas or you are the victim of negative self talk, see a therapist or at least read the book Self Parenting: The Complete Guide to Your Inner Conversations.

Only you can change your current situation. So if you enjoy reading or arts, join a book club at your local library. See if there are any events, clubs, workshops you can go to at your local gallery. Where in the world are you? Are you in a big city or a rural area? Do you like creating art or are you more interested in viewing art? If you are an artist, again, look for a group you can join. Do you like photography? Join a photography club. They have regular outings where you can go along, take photos and you will meet people. If you’re shy something like that is good because you can hide behind your camera a little and focus on what you are doing and when you stop for a break, talk about the photos you took.

You don’t have to be lonely. You do have to step out of your comfort zone to meet people.

Honestly I suck at making friends in real life, but internet friends are great. If you have any social media just find someone with a similar interest and just say hi. I’ve made some of my best friends through the internet.

BE one.