I think what changes is what people give back. When youre young everyone is eager to please and awkward, so they seem receptive to interactions. As you getnolder, people.learn they can just give signs and queues that they dont want to be bothered.

At work you both have to be there, so people engage and want to keep things positive. At college and school even, its somewhat similar. But in the rest of life, ypure now crossing paths with people who are doing their own thing. When you reach out to them, youre cutring in to whatever focus or path they were on. It becomes awkwars because youre reaching out but they’re not in that headspace for meetinf new people.

You can still make new friends as you get older. I think the best way is to do it at places where people are expecring to meet new people - clubs, activities, sports etc. Gaming is one but its a wierd one - you will meet people who want to sovialise and people who dont. But dont expect to meet people.on the streets, or in the supermarket or in the gym etc. It really has to be places where pepple are in the “Im here to meet people” mood. Even bars and clubs can be mkre difficult these days as so many pepple gp to socialise with their current friends and not meet new people.

And of course on top of all that is the awkwardneess of “is this person hitting on me?”. That is amplified in non socialising spaces.

So tl;dr - its harder because the venues become more restricted but ita doable of you go to the right places