Ask Lemmy

What, like, romantically? Or just to make a friend?

Romantically, Hinge is the most common. Though you should try all three of the main apps - Hinge, Bumble, and Tinder, to see which platform is most popular around you, as this seems to change from place to place. And maybe FarmersOnly or something if that's really the vibe of the area?

Platonically, imo the best option is to search for groups for specific hobbies. Eg, hiking clubs, language exchanges, tabletop rpg meetups. Meetup.com used to be pretty good for this - it's gone downhill in recent years, but is still worth a shot. Local facebook groups dedicated to certain interests have a similar trend - not as good as they used to be, but worth a gander.

But really, probably your best bet is to just leave the house and see who and what is out there. Head to the local bar and meet people. Spend some extra time talking to the clerks at the hardware store, and strike up convos with other customers. Go to town hall meetings. Often, small businesses will have bulletin boards full of flyers for other events happening in your area, where you can meet other people.

The upside of rural areas is that most people tend to be friendly - or at least open to meeting new people. A slower pace of life and not constantly being overwhelmed with options for new people to meet means most people are interested in more spontaneous social interactions. Otoh, it can be a lot harder to find your people. Rural communities tend to be fairly conservative and monolithic. If you are looking for friends to play DnD with, you might have a hard time finding those people when all the other people around you are just interested in trucks, beef, family, and jesus.

One strategy there is to be the person hanging up flyers and making meetup groups. Most people are tired and bored and lonely - they want someone to tell them to show up at a place at a time and to be ready to have fun. So if you are having a hard time finding a community of your people, the best way to solve that problem is to make the community you want.

Finally, I know this will seem like ridiculous advice to some.... but you can also just move. The people you spend your time with are, along with things like basic health and financial security, the most important thing in your life. If everyone around you is a gun tote'n Jesus nut, and you are a godless communist, LEAVE. If everyone around you is looking for their tradwife/tradhusband, and you want to have polyamorous queer furry orgies, LEAVE. Finding your people is 10 million times easier when each of those people live withing 5 blocks of each other rather than 50 miles.

And this is doubly true if you are a man looking for a romantic connection with a woman. Sure, tons of women fantasize about living on a farm and taking care of a bunch of cute animals and baking their own bread, but the statistics are clear: women flock to cities. The bigger, denser, and more prosperous a city is, the more likely it is to have a favorable gender ratio for men. And the poorer and more sparsely populated an area is, the more likely it is to have an atrocious gender ratio for men. It's a very well known strategy: move to the city, make your fortune, get yourself a girlie, then move to a remote homestead where you chop your own firewood and watch foxes play outside your back window.