Does making new friends get easier or more difficult as you get older?

Making friends…. do you think it gets easier as you get older, or more difficult?

‘Will you be my friend/can we be friends’ are words one child can say to another in the playground, but adults can’t do that with someone they come across, say in the shop, library, or someone they get chatting to in the doctors’ waiting room perhaps. It would sound needy, or really weird, wouldn’t it?

As children, do we have any criteria for choosing who we are friends with, and does that change as we got older? Or do we just see someone we like for no particular reason that we think of, and that’s it? In other words, do we get more picky as we age? And if you don’t like joining groups and so on, how do you make friends?

How have you made new friends? Has the internet and social media provided you with new opportunities? Or have you joined a club or organisation? Are you still looking for new friends?