What Comes Next as More Adults Turn to Hobbies, Clubs and Shared Interests to Make Friends
More adults are skipping the apps and joining a hobby group instead, betting that shared interests make it easier to find lasting friends. Here is what the research shows about why hobby-based connections work and where to start.
Why are people using a hobby to make friends in 2026?
Shared activities create the kind of repeated, low-pressure contact that helps friendships form naturally. Joining a run club, book club or craft workshop puts you next to people who already share at least one of your interests.
Hobby-based platforms are growing fast as adults look for alternatives to swipe-style apps. Goodreads, Strava and newer communities like Hobbytwin and Palls match people based on what they want to do rather than who they want to date. The model leans on what researchers call shared intention, the experience of focusing on a common goal with someone else, which can make strangers feel more like teammates within a single session.
Mental health benefits are part of the appeal. A 2023 poll by the American Psychiatric Association found that 71% of participants who reported “very good” or “excellent” mental health engaged in creative activities more frequently than those reporting “good,” “fair” or “poor” mental health.
What hobbies are best for making new friends as an adult?
Group activities that involve repetition, collaboration or a low skill barrier tend to work best for building friendships. Run clubs, book clubs and craft workshops show up most often in the current wave of hobby-based community building.
Activities people are using to meet others include pottery classes, knitting and crocheting, baking and cooking, gardening, book clubs, running clubs, Pilates and surf lessons, volunteer gardening, watercolor classes and dance classes like hip hop. The common thread is regular attendance with the same group of people, which gives friendships time to form.
Arran Davis, an expert on social connection and health at the University of Oxford, told BBC that collaborative activities like team sports can not only make exercise feel easier but can also help build social relationships. He described the effect as a sense of “‘I think about what you’re thinking about, you think about what I’m thinking about’.”
Are book clubs really a good way to meet friends?
Yes. Book clubs have become one of the clearest examples of hobby-based friendship building, with members reporting both social and mental health benefits.
A 2025 survey of 2,000 Americans conducted by Talker Research and commissioned by ThriftBooks found that 23% of book club members had met someone they were romantically interested in through their reading group, a sign of how social these communities have become.
Barbara Hagen, vice president of marketing at ThriftBooks, said reading groups are “hugely beneficial for book club members’ mental health.” She added that “readers are meeting in-person, online, in hybrid in-person and online settings and even on social forums. They’re also reading a diverse span of literature from recently-released titles to the classics and making friends and romantic connections along the way.”
Do run clubs actually help you make friends?
Run clubs have surged as social spaces, with platforms tracking sharp growth in club participation over the last two years. Data from Strava shows club participation climbing, with some communities seeing major growth.
The reason ties back to shared intention. Davis told BBC that coordinating an activity with others “makes us feel a bit closer to one another and that can lead us to view one another as good cooperative partners or people that we feel more similar to.” He said that “through coordinating or collaborating, we’re able to signal to each other that we’re friends.”
For people who want lower-intensity options, RacketPal and Reclub focus on casual sports like pickleball, volleyball and hiking, while Activitybees helps users find partners, groups or coaches for specific activities.
What apps help you find a hobby group or club?
Several apps are built specifically around shared activities rather than dating, making them useful for finding ongoing friendships.
Popular options include Strava for running, cycling and hiking communities, and Meetup for local hobby and interest groups. Eventbrite lists workshops and social events, and Palls matches users with people and activities based on their interests. Hobbytwin connects people who want to learn or teach skills.
For readers, Silent Book Club lets members read together with optional chats, while StoryGraph and Fable offer social reading communities. Ravelry remains a long-running community site for knitters and crocheters. Crafters are turning to Tuft Club for collaborative workshops.
The shared idea across these platforms is that meeting around an activity gives friendships something to grow from, rather than asking strangers to bond over a profile.
This article was created by content specialists using various tools, including AI.
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