Well... honestly I don't know the answer to this. I'm married. But, otherwise, I'm completely reclusive... no family, no friends, nor even any acquaintances... by choice. So making acquaintances or friends isn't something I have a lot of hands-on experience with.

I guess my thinking is that, if I did want to try to meet some new people, I'd go out & get involved in some sort of social activities & / or volunteer efforts. There used to be an old sales adage that said something like: to succeed in sales put your belly button next to as many other belly buttons as you can. In order to develop new acquaintances, & perhaps even have the possibility of making friends, I would presume one has to get out there & meet people, preferably people with whom you share some common interests. At least that is my thinking on the subject.

I do think it would be important to become involved with something you genuinely would like to do. There's never a guarantee that getting involved in some activity is going to result in developing new acquaintances or friends. And I suspect that becoming involved in something just as a way to find acquaintances or friends may be a self-defeating undertaking. One would need to, I would suspect, find an activity one would enjoy participating in enough that, if it does not result in making new acquaintances or friends, it's still worthwhile doing. To my way of thinking, getting involved in something simply to get to know people may be the surest way not to get to know anybody if that makes any sense.

I know you're really just looking to develop some new acquaintances at this point not looking to find fast friends. However, lacking any articles on the subject of developing acquaintances, here are links to 6 articles, from PC's archives, on the subject of making friends:

Finding New Friends After 40

Turning Acquaintances Into Friends

How to Make Friends | Of Two Minds

How To Make Friends, or At Least Think About It More Clearly

8 Tips for Making Friends

https://psychcentral.com/blog/a-shor...dium=popular17