Words with Friends: A Serendipitous Way to Make New Friends

The thought of making new friends or companions can be daunting. You're busy, embarrassed, and don't know where to find them. That's why there's been a surge in the popularity of online matchmaker sites, such as Match.com, eHarmony, and Rent-A-Friend. However, an eye-catching story reported in the Chicago Tribune blog, Redeye, suggests a novel approach, especially if you like to play word games.

Megan Lawless, 32, of Chicago, and Jasper Jasperse, 31, of the Netherlands, met online playing Words with Friends. When Megan's girlfriend left for a vacation holiday and was unusually slow in placing her game moves on Words with Friends, Megan defaulted to the random playing option. She was set up to play a new opponent, Jasper. As often happens after intense play, one thing led to another and the relationship escalated — to email, Skype, and Jasper moving to Chicago. Ultimately, the couple fell in love, engaged and married two short years after their first game.

"Most people think, when we tell the story, that we right away started a very intimate conversation," he said, but the opposite was true. "It very gradually built up to finally meeting each other … At one point, I spoke to Megan more than anybody else around me," Jasper tells Redeye.

Now one of the most popular apps for iPhones, iPads, Android devices, and on Facebook, Words with Friends boasts an estimated 6.7 daily users, including celebrities like Alec Baldwin and Lindsay Lohan. Players have two options. They can either play with people they already know or connect with random opponents. The game also offers an asynchronous messaging option so players can chat with each other, too. It was there that the couple began to exchange words off the Scrabble-like board.

In a previous post on Life Goes Strong, I confessed my own addiction to Words with Friends, as has one of my "wordy" blog colleagues, Susan Orlins, who wrote about helpful strategies for winning. Although the two of us haven't met offline yet, I'm sure we will. You can learn a lot about someone's character from playing together. You get a glimpse of their intellect, reliability, tenacity, sociability — and sleeping habits. Susan, like me, is a night owl.

Prior articles on Life Goes Strong about Making Friends

• How to Find Friends with a Click of the Mouse
• Five Tips for Making Friends after 50