I deleted my friendship application because of the stigma – do not do the same thing

1000 friends on Facebook, about 30 close friends and five who would let me cry on their shoulders.

But in the months following my graduation last year, I became obsessed with the idea that I did not have enough friends.

After college, I lost contact with friends who were moving away or were absorbed into new jobs

Most of my friends from home were still at work. and, although I made new friends on my master's course, I felt that I did not have enough to live my life anymore.

jealousy when I looked at Friends, and constantly analyzed past friendships and wondered how I could have saved them.

Trapped in my lonely bubble, I even googled, "How do you make new friends?" The answer, I discovered, was in an application.

Huggle is an application where you can find people who visit your favorite haunts. So you can find someone who visits your gym or local cafe, then arrange a meeting with a friend.

Friendship apps are more complex than dating apps.

When I do a profile for example, I do not need to fish the 2016 photo that gives the illusion that I have the cleavage.

Instead, I was looking for pictures where I looked happy, fun and as if I would be a good friend

-pack worth a thousand words, friendship apps require more analysis when sliding them.

As a result, I felt harder when I passed left on potential friends – I did not judge women by their appearance, but by my idea of ​​

When I found a woman I liked it, I felt uncomfortable starting a conversation.

I therefore swung right and hoped the woman would send me a message first. Some did, but I never managed to answer because after a week on the application, I stopped using it

One night, I went to dinner with one of my best friends and opened up to my desperate situation. She listened and tried to remind me of all my friendships, old and new.

Then I mentioned that I had downloaded a friendship application.

She paused, then warned, "People who are looking for friends on an app probably do not have friends for a reason. She seemed to think that they were all psychopaths or cat ladies.

This stigma around friendship applications surprises me. Why is it acceptable for me to use Tinder to connect with a complete stranger (which, warns my GP, might give me chlamydia) and yet it's weird to use an app for to make friends?

The women I saw on application was not strange at all. According to their pictures, they seemed sociable, with a glass of Prosecco in hand. Most of them were new to London or were looking to expand their social circles

They were women to whom I identified myself, even though I was too scared to send them a message or meet me