30M. One of the biggest pieces of advice I get on dating is to just put myself out there and to go do things where people are. That's how you get opportunities to meet people. The problem is that I've been having trouble with that one three fronts.
The first is that I live in a fairly small town. There just isn't as many people, and the pool is even smaller if you aren't the "conservative man's man who likes cars and guns" type which I'm not. Honestly, there aren't too many people who are my type in the area. Online dating is also tough because my radius is big enough to catch a few larger cities… but the people in those cities tend to not have a wife radius. I haven't had so much as just a Like on Hinge in a couple years, so either my profile isn't getting seen or I'm doing something incredibly wrong since you'd expect at least a couple fom bot accounts.
The second is that a lot of the suggested things just aren't my interests. I could go to a bar or club, and would probably meet people. The problem is that those aren't the things I'm usually into, and so it feels fake to pretend. Plus, I don't know if that'd be a good place to meet people since I don't know if that's the type of person I'm interested in.
The third is that my hobbies are kind of rough on meeting people. Many aren't too social, such as art and writing. Meanwhile, the ones that are social aren't great for dating. I like going to conventions, but it's pretty standard that most people don't want a stranger approaching them and usually just want to have fun with their friends (no one wants to be that guy). Plus, none of my friends tend to share my interests, so I'm usually going alone (making it even easier to become that guy)
It feels a bit like the deck is stacked. It also means that meeting someone is such a rarity that if I do get rejected, it stings a lot more because it could be a long time before I meet someone else I like enough to ask out. That said, while I'm willing to drive a bit if I'm dating someone, but constantly going out of town every weekend just to hopefully meet someone isn't super viable. Is there any advice for people who can't just go to a bar and talk to the first person they see? Or this a scenario where I just need to suck it up until I move somewhere else a few years down the line, or try to find more social hobbies?