Groups to bring strangers together and spark friendships spring up

Some hold free events while others charge a fee; some vet participants

- Lee Li Ying

Freelance fitness instructor Jarell Low, 33, came to a startling realisation about his social circle during the Covid-19 pandemic.

"I was consistently hanging out with the same four friends I made in my secondary school and polytechnic days every single week. And then three of them got married and started to have kids around the same time, so you lose a bit of them in terms of time," he said.

As Mr Low looked to pad his dwindling social calendar, he found out he was not the only one.

His friend, Ms Dong Weiyue, 30, who used to work in a Big Four accounting firm, had grown accustomed to meeting new people through spontaneous dinners and house parties when she was living in the United States.

Back in Singapore, she missed those opportunities to make new friends.

In December 2022, driven by a desire for new and meaningful friendships, Mr Low and Ms Dong launched Offline, a social networking group for people between the ages of 25 and 35.

Every three weeks, the group holds an event bringing together some 50 people from all walks of life from lawyers to jiu-jitsu instructors. The sessions are advertised on Instagram, and participants pay $75, which goes to venue rental and refreshments for the evening.

The nights start with icebreaker games, and guests invariably get to mingle over snacks. The catch? Work talk is forbidden in the first 90 minutes of the session, pushing people to strike up more authentic conversations over shared interests and perspectives.

Thirteen sessions have been held, said the co-founders.

With the pandemic driving home the need for in-person connection, similar groups hoping to spark friendships and nurture communities have popped up in recent years, and are gaining traction from young adults whose friend groups have been impacted by life's big changes in career, children and marriage.