• HalfSalesman@lemmy.world
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    13 days ago

    Reach out and spend wads of money on someone. Its cool he did that but this assumes this is a sustainable means of making friends and it just isn’t.

    US society is simply not structured in a way for adults to naturally make friends and it verges on being outright antagonistic to making close friends.

    • Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org
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      13 days ago

      I wouldn’t read it too literally. The answer isn’t treating someone to a theme park visit every time. The point is they got chatting and went with the flow. That’s what it takes. Doesn’t lead to a friendship every time but eventually it will.

      • HalfSalesman@lemmy.world
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        13 days ago

        The meme does not only suggest a conversation is needed. It implies money is needed. “Going with the flow” in the US TBH probably will cause the average person to spend an irresponsible amount of money. I know because I’ve done that and burned a number of holes in my wallet in pursuit of friends (and intimacy). Sure it works plenty of times, but its not sustainable unless you’ve got plenty of money to burn. Most people don’t.

        • bus_factor@lemmy.world
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          13 days ago

          It doesn’t, though. He was going to an activity, met a person on the way there, and invited the person to join. Had he been on his way to a free activity the gesture would be free.

          “Going with the flow” doesn’t necessarily mean “blow all your life savings”, and it’s kind of ridiculous to claim that it does. I’m sorry you seem to have been exploited by some people you were trying to connect with, but that’s not what is being encouraged here.

        • TheSambassador@lemmy.world
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          13 days ago

          It really doesn’t make any claims that you need money to do this. You could do this with a local park or hike.

          Money helps broaden your options but isn’t required to chat with people.

    • Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world
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      12 days ago

      Reach out and spend wads of money on someone.

      I’ve got a season pass to Six Flags, and part of the deal is getting free “bring a friend” tickets.

      Unless the guy’s treating his taxi driver to meals in the park, this outing could possibly have been free.

    • panda_abyss@lemmy.ca
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      13 days ago

      You can do nice things for people that aren’t expensive.

      I think it’s cool this guy thought the theme park was such a great experience he had to share it with a stranger.

      • HalfSalesman@lemmy.world
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        13 days ago

        You can do nice things for people that aren’t expensive.

        It is easy to say this but hard to execute. If you treat people to things that are gratis or cheap a lot of people will think you are a cheapskate or miserly. At best they’ll think you are poor which also isn’t great either, because even good people don’t want to feel like they’re potentially getting into a relationship that expects them to spend more money than the friend to go out and do things with them (unless, again, they’re rich and don’t care about spending a bunch of money).

        If you dress nicely go out to hang with people but skimp out on spending money people will definitely think you are a miser or penny pincher. If you go out looking like a pauper or poor schlub people will generally just avoid you. I’ve done both.

        • panda_abyss@lemmy.ca
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          13 days ago

          I think that’s a bit extreme.

          My grandpa’s go to was just splitting a beer with people and having a chat. I get that beer isn’t free, but a half a can of beer is not a lot.

              • HalfSalesman@lemmy.world
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                12 days ago

                The city where I socialize is where the cops would probably bother me if I was drinking a beer outside in public. Small towns here in the US are full of dipshits and bumpkins so I tend to avoid people when in one if possible.