Social media elbowed most conventional paths to social groups aside. I know it's not impossible, but joining a group without seeing its online presence is intimidating after a decade of using the online to mediate.
That said, I'm happy to broaden my horizons - I know the perils of terminal onlineness. My kitchen has already developed as a result of the pandemic, now I just need more than a tiny friend group for dinner parties.
Doesn’t work for cultures where trying to socialize with strangers is a faux pas. In Finland, for example, if you go outside to meet people, it should be at some kind of group event where socializing is expressly encouraged. And guess where such events are mainly announced these days? Social media.
This is at least 95 percent of the reason I am still on Facebook.