Exploring New Hobbies Is the New Way to Date

The Short Version: You can’t have a healthy dating life without a healthy social life. Great Meets simplifies the process of meeting new people by allowing members to plan, organize, and post events all in one place. We talked to the leadership team about the platform, its features, and how Great Meets can help you meet people you like through activities you love.

I moved to a new city earlier this year, sort of on a whim, and exploring a new place has been so fun. I live in Minneapolis now, and I think the city doesn’t get nearly enough credit for how much it has to offer.

I’ve only been here during the summer months, so I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying the city’s beautifully temperate summers (I’m from the South, where having a 60-degree day in August is unheard of) and seemingly endless outdoor space.

Most people know Minneapolis for its insanely cold winters, and I’ll be sure to check back in with my feelings about the city come January. But for now, I’m filling all my free time with biking, running, roller skating, and metro-ing around the Twin Cities.

A new friend of mine in the city recently invited me to join a run club. At first, I was hesitant. I love running, but I love doing it alone. It’s a solitary activity for me. I listen to music and get into that mode. But I want to meet people, so I went to a morning group run with my friend – and it was a blast!

I met so many friendly and welcoming people who love to run as much as I do. You’ve probably heard that meeting people with shared hobbies is the way to go to form relationships, but it can be a challenge to follow that advice in daily life.

We talked to Ann, Paul, and Eric from the team at Great Meets about what their tool can do to make meaningful connections. Great Meets is an online platform that enables you to plan and organize events, perhaps even a running group.

The team filled us in on how you can use the platform to get involved in activities you care about– and how this can be a transformative step in your dating journey.

The CEO Paul told us the inspiration behind the platform is to use technology to facilitate IRL meetups. “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.”

I give my friends (and myself) the following advice when it comes to dating: Focus on yourself first. But in the hustle and bustle of life, discovering what focusing on yourself means is a task on its own. Dedicating time to your hobbies and interests can be a great place to start.

I turn to different pastimes depending on my mood. Some hobbies are social, such as board games or group hiking, while others are usually done alone, like journaling or crocheting. I try to blend social and solo hobbies, so I always have an outlet, regardless of whether or not I want to leave my house.

If you don’t have any hobbies you love yet, this makes the process even more fun. You can think about the kinds of things you’ve wanted to get into but haven’t been able to, and then begin searching for opportunities in your area.

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

Dedicating time to exploring a new hobby on Great Meets can help you focus on yourself and give you some much-needed respite from the ups and downs of dating. It’s also beneficial– and maybe necessary– for your overall health.

One study, published in 2023, suggested that having a hobby is good for your health, mood, and relationships. The study spanned several years and involved more than 93,000 people from 16 countries, and all participants were 65 years of age or older.

The study found that compared with people who didn’t have hobbies, those who did reported more happiness, better health, and a higher level of life satisfaction. The study doesn’t prove that hobbies cause happiness, but it does point to the physical, mental, and social benefits that hobbies provide.

When you engage in one of your hobbies, you’re doing great things for your physical and mental health. Hobbies encourage us to get creative, express ourselves, and engage with our senses. They give us a chance to mentally stimulate ourselves outside of the stressors of work and relationships.

Hobbies are even more beneficial when they’re enjoyed with others. Getting involved in like-minded groups keeps you connected to your community and helps ward off loneliness.

Once you’ve decided which hobbies you want to explore more, Great Meets can help you find people in your area who love those activities too. The platform has easy-to-use features, including messaging, RSVPs, and polls.

Getting started on Great Meets is easy. You’ll sign up for an account and make your profile, which includes your username and a profile picture. Make sure to choose a clear and high-quality photograph for your profile and write a bio that lets other users know what you’re looking for on the platform.

After you’re finished with your profile, you can search for groups in your area, or you can create your own group. You can browse groups by keyword and proximity to your location. Great Meets will show you how close you are to different users, events, and groups.

If you’re interested in a group and want to learn more, Great Meets allows you to send direct messages to the group leader. Once you’re in a group, you can chat with other members of that group.

Paul said by allowing users to post their events directly onto the website’s homepage, events get greater visibility and attract more participants.

“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.”

But Great Meets is valuable for more than simply organizing events. The platform offers extended social features so you can grow your community in unexpected places. You can add friends to your Great Meets network, which will connect you with different people and activities.

Great Meets makes it so simple to organize events that you might be surprised to learn it’s a relatively new interface. During development, Paul said the team took all the best things about event-organizing platforms and incorporated them into their essence. 

You won’t find any distracting features on Great Meets – only what you need to make 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.”

With plenty of event organizing platforms out there, the Great Meets team said they had to give the platform extra features to make it stand out. Great Meets is still in its rollout period, and Eric, a back-end developer, was excited to fill us in on a special offer and what users can expect from the platform in the coming months. 

“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.”

Great Meets is unlike other sites because you can message and interact with users outside of your group or groups. Other sites are designed so that group organizers have to wait for people to come to them. On Great Meets, you can spread the word about your event and encourage other users to check it out.

Since the platform is still in its early stages, Eric said their main goal is consistent 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.”

One new Great Meets feature you can look forward to is the group whiteboard. “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.”

There have been times that I’ve been so caught up in dating, a crush, or a relationship, that other meaningful parts of my life may have become a bit neglected. If you’re knee-deep in the dating scene right now, you should take a step back and examine if you’ve left yourself enough time for yourself.

Hobbies can be an outlet for focusing on yourself and your own interests, whether or not you’re in a relationship. You can take the time to learn and improve at your hobby and make connections outside of dating with people who share that interest.

Whether you’re working on becoming the next best home chef or an amateur botanist, when you give time to the things you enjoy, you’re giving time to yourself, your well-being, and your passions. And that’s invaluable.