Of the 5 LTRs I have had in my life, I met one through uni, one through work, one through volunteering, one on Tinder, and one through dancing to karaoke while drunk. So if I find myself single again, and want to meet someone, I won’t go back to studying but I will try all other four avenues that bought me success before. Sounds like quite a full and rounded life to me! (Especially the dancing to karaoke bit.....)
It’s not a binary choice, is it - OLD or interests. Perfectly possible to fit both in.
I do agree that it’s a nice thought - meeting someone through a shared interest or passion. But it really does depend what your interests are - there aren’t clubs for everything, some interests are more solitary. (Actually, I’m struggling to think of any examples, so maybe that’s wrong).
And also, if you list your interests in your bio on OLD you will hopefully attract people who share them - quite a few men swiped me because I mentioned my interest in politics, I reckon, as that was one of the first things a lot of them spoke to me about..... Oh, and live music - I got a couple who were in bands. And walking and the countryside - there was a nature photographer (he was nice). And the one I ended up with spoke to me first of all about poetry, because I said I liked that.....
It honestly wasn’t a bunch of boring losers with nothing to say for themselves. There were a few I clearly had little in common with, but it was pretty easy to weed them out, and I still ended up with quite a few interesting guys I would happily have dated, if I hadn’t liked the first one so much.
It’s true that you hear some OLD horror stories on here, but surely that’s because people are more likely to ask for advice/support in a bad or tricky situation - people would be unlikely to start a thread to say they have had a successful date with a normal, nice man.....