Basically join hobby groups. Not sure if meetup.com is much of a thing any more but they had tons of different types of meet ups.

Dance classes usually have lots of single women if your hobby is more male oriented. You do not have to be a good dancer for the beginner classes.

I get that it can be frustrating to be constantly told that women do not want to be approached in public. I actually just looked up where to meet women after reading your comment and one article stood out because it was a woman who was trying to get hit on at the gym. She admitted that she is only up for being approached when she is getting water or leaving. Her showering that she was open to flirt with a specific person was by giving a smile which is something women generally say is absolutely not an invitation to flirt. She also mentioned giving bedroom eyes which I imagine is difficult for a guy to interpret on a sweaty woman. This woman turns out to be a dating coach.

I was lucky that Tinder was just starting out when I got a late start in dating.

The only way I've ever had luck on those apps is just by trying to make my profile funny instead of really lame and repetitive. Like, make one that actually stands out, even if it's just a big picture of you in a fish costume holding yourself, or something. It can certainly help if you get a sense for what other dude's profiles look like and intentionally do what will stand out from them, or what will point out the absurdity of them. Then, just wait. That's it, don't surf the app really, that's a pretty guaranteed way to lose hope on everything. If you do scroll, do it sparingly, and sparingly give out swipes, don't swipe on someone cause they're hot, swipe on someone because they either seem like someone you wanna go out with or because they're sending you some other form of signal that actually matters. After you get a match or two, you're gonna wanna swipe through the pile until you can distinguish the person who swiped on you from the blurry preview they give you, and then you can go from there based on whether or not they seem like a good fit or not, generally I opt towards yes even if they haven't put much effort in.

I dunno about tinder, but sometimes you can even delete your bumble profile and the app keeps puppeting around your account, and then you can return later on, and swipe through the pile, until you can distinguish them based on their preview. I've met like 7-8 girls this way and my profile barely even shows my face and it's all stupid jokey bullshit. I think my ELO's probably tanked but I don't really care that much atp. If you're really desperate there are ways to flub the sign-up process and make a totally new account, so you can reset your ELO if you've tanked it by swiping right a million times and getting nothing back.

How old are you? It’s been years since I dated, but I had a decent amount of success on dating apps. It can take time to curate a good profile. Also, my understanding is that free options are nonexistent or flooded with fake OF profiles, so that might make it more difficult

No point in feeling frustrated. Many women aren't ready to date or have interest in men strongly. Keep going and someone may or may not show up just keep living.

Yeah dating a coworker is gross.

It’s basically being patient until you happen to bump into a good match.

FWIW, there are atheist groups that serve similar functions. A friend of mine grew up going to the local "Secular Circle" every Sunday, because her parents wanted her to have the social benefits of church without any of the religious stuff, and she talks about how she intends to bring her kids there.

(Cough)

I'm late 20s/early 30s. Since ~2011 the only social media I used was Reddit. No Facebook, Twitter, etc, etc.

What you're saying is exactly how I met my now wife. I looked after myself, did shit I enjoyed, found community events, hobbies groups, lived life, met lots of people, made new friends. Eventually I asked one of the friends on a date and now my best friend is my wife and I can't be happier.

I will say, not having Facebook was a problem in some areas though. I missed out on group activities, group hobby chats, that sort of thing but I didn't care. Friends would invite me to some of them anyway. Also, It might have changed these days but a handfull of people refused to trade numbers, they wanted me to add them on Facebook which was impossible. I didn't let that get in the way either but it was kind of 'hard' to miss out on a potential friendship. It all worked out in the end for me.

Most likely a plurality, and given who you spend the most time with that makes a lot of sense tbh.

Unless you already have shit loads of friends this is not viable. And dating at work has almost gotten impossible with the risk of harassment.

Young people are fucked.