Poll: Is it easier to make friends online or through local activities?

[Nicola47]

Making friends as an adult is surprisingly hard. School and university hand you a ready made social circle, but after that it takes deliberate effort. Many of us end up relying on work friends, old school mates and whoever lives nearby. This forum is proof that online friendships can be real, but are they easier to make?

Online spaces make it easy to find people who share your exact interests, however niche they are. You can chat at any hour, and shy people often find it easier to open up in writing. The downside is that online friendships can fade quickly, and meeting in person is not always possible

Local activities like clubs, classes, volunteering and sports teams build friendships more slowly. You see the same faces each week, and that regular contact turns acquaintances into friends over time. But it takes effort to turn up, and in some areas there is not much on offer

For what it is worth, my closest friend is someone I met through an old gaming forum nearly twenty years ago. We only met in person after five years of chatting. So I am biased, but I know plenty of people who would say the opposite

Which has worked better for you? Have any online friendships turned into real world ones? I am curious whether age or where people live changes the answer