Meet Up Dot Com

By Mandy Smith

Meetup.com is a social networking site that smoothes the progress of group meetings off the internet in various locations around the world. Meetup.com is facilitated by allowing members to search and join groups that are united by a common interest that is shared. These interests include singles, readers, hikers, tennis players, dog lovers, and even beer drinkers. Users can search groups by providing their zip code and browsing through groups that might interest them. Once a group has been chosen, the group will arrange different times and places to meet.

My experience with meetup.com has been recent and very successful. Being new to the Phoenix, Arizona area, I am not too familiar with the area nor do I know many people. So, I recently met up with the Valley Beer Drinkers group and met up with professionals around the area of Phoenix, AZ to drink beer over happy hour with great company.

This type of social media definitely creates conversation and in such a great way. I think that this type of social media reaches out to people who are over social media and want to get back in the real world and experience real people with real interests.
Social Media has taken away that one on one connection people seek in their lives. Not being in school and knowing hardly anyone out here made it hard for me to make friends. There are a lot of people who move to different cities and find this to be a common problem. I think that being able to utilize social media tools to connect people socially in an environment where they can share what they all love is one of the best ideas ever.

After meeting with the Valley Beer Drinkers group I was given volunteer opportunities around the area, other chances to go to Cub spring training games and even met some very interesting people from around the area. Unfortunately, I have been unable to make it to another event I would highly recommend going to anyone who wants to meet some great people.