Students arrange blind dates with friends

Last year, Juliette Sartori decided to expand her social circle, so she went on a coffee date with three people she had never met before.

“It went really well,” she said.

“We ended up talking for two hours and I still talk to them today. We all stay in touch.”

Their friend blind date was part of Dinner with a Stranger, the club Juliette and her flatmates set up “on a whim” for fellow Glasgow University students who wanted to meet new people.

Juliette, 21, had moved to Scotland from the US to study business and management and said it was harder to connect with others straight away as she found people had “closed up a wall” and isolated themselves be.

Because students are so connected and digital that they spend less time interacting with one another in person, she hasn’t had many opportunities to expand her circle of friends.

And so “Dinner with a Stranger” was born.

“We originally thought only 30 people would take part,” says Juliette. “We just didn’t know what to expect.

“It’s a trite idea and the name puts people off from the start.”

But 200 people – a mix of male, female and non-binary students and postgraduates – signed up in the first month, and the society has continued to grow since then.

Juliette’s friendship lottery is very different from the swipe-right culture of dating apps that dominates the lives of many young people.

Firstly, it’s about friendship and not romantic relationships. But it also avoids complicated computer algorithms and instead relies on more traditional personality tests that are shared online with members at the start of each month.

Potential partners are asked questions on a topic ranging from their favorite music genre or favorite Disney movie to their dream vacation destination.

Then Juliette and five others spend hours manually matching people and exchanging contact information before stepping back to let the magic happen.

Mary Yiorkadji played the platonic Cupid alongside Juliette and quickly realized she wasn’t the only one struggling to make friends at university.

Originally from Cyprus, she says: “There are a lot of people from different backgrounds and it can be really intimidating to feel like you’re different and people don’t understand you.”

The 22-year-old believes social media has a negative impact on friendships.

This is because more and more people these days are comparing their lives to others online.

“It’s really easy to get caught up in false ideas from social media, which can lead to loneliness and expectations that are never met,” says Mary.

“People are lonelier now. Our generation is lonelier.”

But Mary says “Dinner with a Stranger” introduced her to the beauty of blind friendship dating.

“I think one of the most important aspects of university is meeting new people,” says the fourth-year economics and philosophy student.

“In this way, you give power not to the differences between people, but to the things that are important in a friendship, namely the things you have in common.”

She describes it as a “unique” way to meet and connect with others from around the world.

Second-graders Vanya and Hannah, who were brought together by Dinner with a Stranger last December, believe they would never have met without the group.

Hannah, 20, from Manchester, says: “Society puts so much emphasis on romance that we forget how important friendships are.”

She says that before meeting Vanya she was “miserable” and spent a lot of time alone, but now her mental health has improved and she is more confident.

The two are now best friends and roommates.

Vanya, 19, says she enjoyed getting to know Hannah without “preconceived ideas and expectations.”

“People talk to so many people online that they don’t really talk to anyone,” says the business student from India.

“This way you go in with a completely open mind and get to know someone as the conversation progresses.

“You have to show that you’re really trying.”

Friendly meetings with strangers helped Juliette find her “people”.

She’s confused about why people think it’s not normal to go to friend gatherings to meet new people and believes there will soon be more opportunities to take part in this “fun experiment.”

She said: “It’s more of a modern way of making friends.

“It’s about turning the idea of ​​meeting someone online through a dating website into friendships by seeing how well you get along with that person.”

Dating apps like Bumble have already started developing similar versions of making friends, which Juliette believes will only become more popular as the idea becomes more widespread.

She said: “Today people are working from home and studying remotely. It’s more common for people to stay home all the time, and you’re less likely to go out and meet new people like you would have five years ago.”

“It’s modern, but I think it will become more popular in the future.”