sanity_is_maddening
You're in the awful moment after college. I'm 40 and this happened to anyone I know as well. Older people than me will tell you the same. It really sucks.
So, I'm gonna give a few suggestions where you don't have to spend any money and don't involve clubbing, which is not cheap either.
Plenty of group activities don't cost anything and are the most fulfilling...
Just one quick note. Don't concern yourself too much with age groups. People are organised by age groups in school. Everywhere else the organisation is mutual interests or common goals. And then you'll go there and find people of all ages.
So...
Find projects of your interest where you can volunteer.
If you like animals, give some of your time to local animal shelters and animal associations.
If you want to give Nature a hand, volunteer to go plant trees on the weekend, plenty of groups outthere always asking for more to come.
Check the activities at your local library, most of them are state funded and free of charge to participate in.
The same goes for Cultural Associations. Plenty of them have state funded events that are free of charge to attend.
There are also amateur groups that you can join. Just find anything of your liking. If you like to draw, almost any place has a "drink and draw" event or an Urban Sketchers group. Nobody will care if you don't consume at these events. And if you think you can't draw, nobody cares. People of all levels of skill show up. I know this because I go to them and nobody cares how well you draw. As long as you like drawing, looking at drawings or watching people drawing you're always welcomed at them.
If drawing is not of your interest but you like singing, there's for sure an amateur singing group near you. My girlfriend met a group of funny and energetic elderly ladies this way. She loves their company. And nobody young or old is there to make it to a stage. They just enjoy singing and each other's company.
If you don't like singing but you play an instrument, plenty of Jam sessions around and in some the musicians that play don't pay for their drinks. And the ones where they do, you can just not consume anything. They know you're there to play. But there's a few who even pay some musicians to be there. It's a matter of finding out.
There's dancing groups.
There's film clubs.
There's book clubs.
There's poetry gatherings. A lot of the poetry there will be awful and that's fine. It's part of the charm.
And the reason why I know of all these events I suggested so far is because I go to them and I even help organise some of them with two of my local cultural associations. The next event I'm helping out on is an Animation festival that is now in its fourth annual edition. Although not all, some of the screenings are free. But the ones that aren't are dirt cheap anyways.
These are some examples, there are so many more. And in almost if not all of them you'll find people of all ages, including yours and younger.
Don't go out looking for a romantic partner. Go look for a community. You're also more likely to find a partner in a community of people anyway.
While you were in school, you were in a secluded and rigid environment.
Welcome to the shit.
Where everyone is as clueless as you probably think you are.
I wish more people thought like you.
And I wish I gave answers as swift and succinct as yours. I wrote a reply that is too looooong. Yours is better.
Well, the DVDs and Blu-rays do not have to be of American media, but if they are, they can be of the several European special boutiques and distributors that can merely license the media you specifically care for. Although I'm sure that there are many American Filmmakers and artists we all still want to support and even increase visibility amongst the current circumstances. This allows one to have that level of targeting and to have specific and personal input, instead of just contributing to giant conglomerates that screw the artists out of fair revenue before moving to screw their costumers at every turn, which is what streaming services are and do.
With physical media, one can also borrow or lend amongst each other at leisure, check them for free from libraries or buy them second hand. This is also about cultural sovereignty and increases the resiliency in communities when it comes to culture. And in times of instability and economic hardship it becomes even more necessary.
Media is like anything else, the more people owning it the better. We don't want culture to be in the hands of just a few. That is the wrong direction for everything.
But I'm suspect because I've never stopped this habit and I prefer European cinema and World Cinema to American in the first place.
I also enjoy going to screenings in my local cineclub. There's a wonderful sense of community and great discussions to have. And it's so much cheaper and fulfilling than going to the Multiplex which is impersonal and encourages mindlesness.
If you're more into TV series, the U.S. does have the monopoly of interest. But I assume this is much more about visibility and a failure of venues to publicise TV series of other places. The absence of TV Series Festivals like Film Festivals that can obtain visibility for them is partially the answer that is missing. But I still remember the craze with the Scandinavian output, which had hits like "Forbrydelsen" (The Killing) or Bron (The Bridge), and both got American Remakes that were quite disappointing in comparison. But the biggest hit that came out of that was probably Borgen. Wonderful show.
But even in English, I much prefer to watch shows coming out of Britain than the U.S. And with BBC, you only need a VPN to access their shows and documentaries for free. It's public domain there. If you are from the U.k. than this is an unnecessary step.
Some people have suggested that we should push the E.U. to start a streaming service that would make content created by European Public owned Networks and Radiostations available to all countries in the EU for free. It's already free. It just needs distribution. It's a great idea. Although the BBC is Brittish and therefore not EU, a deal could probably still be achieved to include them.
Anyway, I will still always suggest for anyone to not get too stuck in algorithmic suggestions of Cinema, Music and Art in General. It gets stale, and doesn't force us to challenge ourselves in any form and in any new directions. Part of the problem we have in civilization right now is precisely stemming from this lack of broadening personal horizons and challenging individual perceptions that comes with the feedback loop that algorithms reinforce and cause the so called "bubbles" and "echo chambers" that so many like to point out, but so very few actually enjoy breaking out of.
I want to add that some of us went through this over here...
https://vger.app/profile/piefed.social/c/europe@feddit.org/comments/1069662
Yes! Thank you! I've been shouting this for over a decade.
And I keep saying that Gamergate should've been the moment to take notice of this. Even yesterday I included this in another comment. That was the gate that opened this flood. And that should've been the moment to shut down algorithmic incentive for engagement. People shrugged and moved on. Then came Snowden trying to warn everyone of the consolidation of power. People shrugged and moved on. Then it came the Cambridge Analytica Scandal. People shrugged and moved on.
There's that phrase... "we always have the world we deserve". I used to rebel against this statement. But I find myself agreeing with it more and more over time. I still don't like it as a blank statement though. Too many don't deserve the outcomes of it.
Thank you for the correction and the very good news in just one go.
And I apologise if I misrepresented the Australian national identity in the process. That wasn't my intention. And it's always good to know that this brand of populism is unpopular in some countries.
No, you're not wrong. Someone else has also corrected me.
Apparently Dutton even lost his sit.
So, good news on that front at least.
I missed that one. Thank you for sharing it. The fact that they have the "wellness" as a spin is the really fucked up part. So..."Wellness camps" is how they're going to sell the same thing like the "los indeseados" in Cuba. At least Fidel was honest in naming the nonsense he unleashed, I guess.