Trying New Hobbies Together Is How People Date Now

The Short Version: A good dating life depends on a good social life. Great Meets makes meeting new people easier by letting members plan, organize, and post events from a single place. We sat down with its leadership team to talk through the platform and its features, and to hear how Great Meets can connect you with people you like through the activities you love.

Earlier this year I picked up and moved cities, more or less on a whim, and getting to know the place has been a lot of fun. Minneapolis is home now, and in my view it gets far too little credit for everything it offers.

So far I’ve only seen the summer months here, which means I’ve gotten to soak up the city’s wonderfully mild summers (I grew up in the South, where August never brings a 60-degree day) and what feels like a never-ending supply of outdoor space.

Minneapolis is best known for its brutally cold winters, and I promise to report back on how I feel about the place come January. For now, though, I’m packing every free hour with running, biking, roller skating, and hopping on the metro around the Twin Cities.

Joining something like a run club is a great way to throw yourself into a hobby.

Not long ago, a friend I’ve made here asked me to come along to a run club. I hesitated at first. Running is something I love, but I love it solo. For me it’s time alone: I put on music and slip into that zone. Still, I wanted to meet people, so I joined my friend for a morning group run, and it turned out to be a blast!

Everyone I met was friendly and welcoming, and every bit as into running as I am. You’ve likely heard that bonding over shared hobbies is the best way to build relationships, but actually putting that advice into practice day to day isn’t always easy.

We spoke with Ann, Paul, and Eric of the Great Meets team about how their tool helps people form meaningful connections. Great Meets lets you plan and organize events online, and that could even include a running group.

They walked us through ways the platform helps you get involved with the activities that matter to you, and why doing so can change your dating life for the better.

According to CEO Paul, the idea behind the platform was to use technology to make IRL meetups happen. “Our whole goal is to get people together,” Paul said. “Our users can promote their groups and events directly on the website, reaching a broader audience within the community.”

Put Yourself First

Whenever friends ask me about dating (and when I ask myself), my advice is the same: put yourself first. Yet amid the rush of everyday life, working out what that actually looks like can be a job in itself. Carving out time for your hobbies and interests is a good way to begin.

Which pastime I reach for depends on my mood. Some are social, like board games or hiking with a group, and others are mostly solitary, like journaling or crocheting. I aim for a mix of the two so there’s always an outlet for me, whether I feel like leaving the house or not.

Don’t have a hobby you love yet? That makes this even more fun. Think about the things you’ve been meaning to try but never got around to, then start looking for chances to do them near you.

“People with all different kinds of interests are on Great Meets,” said Ann, the company’s CFO. “People are makers and woodworkers. Other people want to do social activities, like book clubs and wine clubs. There’s something for everyone.”

Research suggests people who have hobbies tend to be happier and healthier.

Setting aside time to try out a new hobby through Great Meets keeps the focus on you and gives you a welcome break from the highs and lows of dating. It’s also good for your overall health, and perhaps essential to it.

A study released in 2023 suggested that hobbies benefit your mood, health, and relationships. The research ran for several years and followed upward of 93,000 people in 16 countries, every one of them 65 or older.

Next to people without hobbies, participants who had them reported greater happiness, better health, and more satisfaction with life. That doesn’t prove hobbies are the cause of happiness, but it does highlight the social, mental, and physical benefits they offer.

Spending time on a hobby does wonderful things for your body and mind. Hobbies push us to be creative, to express ourselves, and to use our senses. They let us stimulate our minds away from the stress of work and relationships.

Sharing hobbies with other people makes them even more rewarding. Joining groups of like-minded people keeps you tied to your community and helps keep loneliness at bay.

After you’ve picked the hobbies you’d like to dig into, Great Meets can connect you with nearby people who love them as much as you do. Its features are simple to use and include messaging, RSVPs, and polls.

Great Meets Makes Great Connections Possible

Signing up for Great Meets is simple. Create an account and build your profile, which includes a username and a profile picture. Pick a clear, high-quality photo, and write a bio telling other users what you hope to find on the platform.

Once your profile is done, you can look for groups near you or start one of your own. Groups can be searched by keyword and by distance from where you are, and Great Meets shows how far you are from various users, events, and groups.

See a group that interests you and want to know more? Great Meets lets you direct message the group’s leader. Once you’re a member, you can chat with everyone else in the group.

Great Meets offers all you could want from an event-organizing platform, and then some.

According to Paul, letting users post events straight to the site’s homepage gives those events more visibility and draws more people to them.

“We have marketing tools where people can promote their activities,” Paul explained. “They can also promote their groups, too. We also have a site-wide discussion board where people can talk about different things, get together, foster new ideas, and build community.”

Organizing events isn’t the only thing Great Meets is good for, though. Its extra social features let you build a community in places you might not expect. Friends you add to your network on Great Meets will link you up with new people and activities.

Organizing events on Great Meets is so easy that it may surprise you to hear the interface is fairly new. Paul said that while building it, the team pulled together the best parts of other event-organizing platforms and made them the core of their own.

Great Meets has no distracting extras, just what you need to form great connections.

“Ours is modern, up-to-date, and mobile-friendly,” Paul said. “It has all the bells and whistles you could want, but it’s set up for users of all technical skill levels. Anyone can comfortably use our website.”

Leaning Into Your Interests Makes Dating Easier

Because there are so many event-organizing platforms, the Great Meets team said it needed extra features to set theirs apart. Great Meets is still rolling out, and back-end developer Eric was eager to tell us about a special offer, as well as what’s coming for users in the months ahead.

“For the rollout promotion, we’re going to be offering people the chance to create their profile and create their own free group,” Eric told us. “They’ll be able to maintain that group for free for however long they want. They can control every aspect of the group, including all the analytics and event setups.”

What sets Great Meets apart from other sites is that you’re free to reach out to and interact with people outside your own group or groups. On other sites, organizers are stuck waiting for people to come their way. On Great Meets, you can get the word out about your event and invite other users to take a look.

Keep the important things in view while you date.

Because the platform is so new, Eric said the team’s main focus is steady improvement. “We never stop working on it, and it’s constantly evolving,” he told us. “We’re looking forward to phase two where we’re going to roll out a lot of new features.”

The group whiteboard is one upcoming Great Meets feature to watch for. “We want to make a whiteboard where people can interact and plan on the website,” Eric said. “We’re always thinking about different ways to bring people together more easily.”

At times I’ve been so wrapped up in a crush, in dating, or in a relationship that other things that matter in my life may have slipped a little. If you’re deep in the dating scene at the moment, step back and ask yourself whether you’ve saved enough time for you.

Whether you’re in a relationship or not, hobbies give you a way to focus on yourself and the things you’re into. You can take time to learn and get better at your hobby, and form connections beyond dating with people who share it.

Maybe you’re on your way to becoming the next great home chef, or maybe an amateur botanist. Either way, giving time to what you enjoy means investing in your passions, your well-being, and yourself. That’s priceless.