{"id":49483,"date":"2025-08-07T04:00:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T04:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/49483\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T04:00:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T04:00:10","slug":"i-just-moved-to-sydney-its-stunning-but-ive-never-been-more-miserable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/49483\/","title":{"rendered":"I just moved to Sydney. It’s stunning… but I’ve never been more miserable"},"content":{"rendered":"

An international student has struck a chord with thousands after describing Sydney<\/a>\u00a0as ‘beautiful but lonely’.<\/p>\n

The young man, who moved to Australia from India<\/a> for university, has sparked a wave of responses from locals and expats who agree the city’s social scene can be notoriously hard to crack.<\/p>\n

Sharing his experience in an honest Reddit<\/a> thread, the man said that while the harbour city is ‘absolutely stunning’, he’s found it ‘antisocial’ and difficult to connect with people, both on campus and in day-to-day life.<\/p>\n

‘Everybody’s on their phones all the time, everybody seems very busy all the time,’ he wrote.<\/p>\n

‘Making friends seems like a hard task for now.’<\/p>\n

Many agreed, with some saying it’s not just Sydney, but a wider Australian cultural pattern where friendliness doesn’t necessarily translate into friendship.<\/p>\n

‘People will be friendly and it’s easy to chat, but that’s not the same as getting someone [to slow down enough to] befriend them,’ one replied.<\/p>\n

They advised joining regular groups or hobbies and spending more time outside the CBD, where social circles can be more open.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A post from an international student has struck a chord online, after they described Sydney as ‘beautiful but lonely’<\/p>\n

Others compared Sydney to cities overseas, saying the difference in openness was striking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One man recalled joining a running club while travelling in Europe and making friends instantly, some of whom stayed in touch until his next visit.<\/p>\n

‘It gave me a massive confidence boost,’ he said.<\/p>\n

Some pointed to what they saw as a deeper social problem.<\/p>\n

‘There’s an unspoken Australian culture of being friendly to many, but only friends with people [who] can get them somewhere,’ one wrote.<\/p>\n

‘If you’re out solo, it looks like you’re [not worth talking to].’<\/p>\n

Others described Sydney as a place where established social networks go back decades, making it tough for outsiders to break in.<\/p>\n

‘Unless you were raised here and made school friends in affluent suburbs, they aren’t interested in making friends with you. You’re irrelevant and invisible,’ one commenter claimed.<\/p>\n

\"Others <\/p>\n

Others described Sydney as a place where established social networks go back decades, making it tough for outsiders to break in<\/p>\n

Several shared similar experiences in other Australian cities, saying smaller capitals like Adelaide could also feel closed off.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Everyone knows everyone from childhood. It’s almost impossible to make friends with the locals here and they look at you weird if you even walk alone,’ a woman shared.<\/p>\n

Some suggested Sydney’s culture of constant busyness – and even tall poppy syndrome – played a role, making people less willing to engage openly with strangers.<\/p>\n

Tall poppy syndrome is a term often used in Australia and New Zealand to describe the tendency to criticise, resent, or cut down people who are perceived as more successful, talented, or ambitious than others.<\/p>\n

The idea comes from the metaphor of cutting down the tallest poppies in a field so they don’t stand out.<\/p>\n

While it can act as a social leveller, many say it discourages achievement and makes people less willing to celebrate others’ wins – or even put themselves out there in the first place.<\/p>\n

However, a few argued the city’s drinking culture was one of the few remaining avenues for spontaneous socialising.<\/p>\n

While a few commenters insisted it’s possible to build a thriving social life in Sydney, they admitted it takes extra effort – and often the most welcoming circles are made up of other ‘out-of-towners’ in the same boat.<\/p>\n

As one long-term resident summed it up after seven years.<\/p>\n

‘Even with friends it’s a lonely city. It’s superficial, not very friendly. Melbourne and Perth are significantly more welcoming,’ they wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An international student has struck a chord with thousands after describing Sydney\u00a0as ‘beautiful but lonely’. The young man,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3443,64,63,100,134,7179,1209,20053,2579,670],"class_list":{"0":"post-49483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-adelaide","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-dailymail","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-femail","14":"tag-india","15":"tag-reallife","16":"tag-reddit","17":"tag-sydney"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}