Do you ever avoid being too friendly towards men to prevent them from thinking that you are interested?

[shaysh87]

Men and women tend to congregate and socialize a lot in my school. But I intentionally make conversations with men brief and short and avoid making too much eye contact, so that he wouldn't misunderstand my intentions. In today's media, male and female relations are so sexualized that we barely get to socialize long without romantic labels. When it comes to socializing and being friendly, I tend to gravitate towards women.

[quaranta]

It's still possible to socialize a lot with the opposite sex without getting into a dating/sexual context, this is what I do all the time from all my life and still now I manage to do this without big problems. The reason is because I talk with people only with purposes behind, not chit chat, which does suggest romantic intentions behind indeed (why else would you talk with a random person about "each other" or about nothing specific?). My areas of hobbies and interests are mostly filled by men, women are extremely rare and even when there are some, they take it more casually than me. So I end up having male friends only and as you can imagine our conversations are focused on topics rather than our bond, which I'm barely interested to keep on, alone, but if it wasn't for common interests then I would avoid that (no time, no need).
So what I want to say is that as long as you find someone with common interests (through the area of interest, like a community or a course etc, not through an app and then discovering the interests in common later), and you have some projects going on about that or are willing to join others', then there is a reason behind a conversation that, alone, can't signal interest in "them". This to me is a, most often, granted pass to have male contacts without strong personal bonds in between, or to let them develop naturally over time if they really have to.
Said that, it doesn't mean you can't have male friends through casual chats only, I did get some as well, but given your age, most likely people are busy for "friends only", if there is no other purpose. Think about 2 unknown males in their early 30s: why would they start to become friends, if there is nothing in common? They wouldn't see any point probably.
Replying to your question: no, I am considered attractive but I never avoided being too friendly, until I spotted interest from them. But as long as I didn't, I kept being friendly at any age and in any context. Rejecting someone is not the end of the world, I did that several times, even exposing their intentions sometimes to avoid dragging it... I never needed to say I don't want a "relationship", usually the stage was earlier and I said I can't grant the presence they want or a closer friendship they look like tyring to get, or that I can't reciprocate attentions and repay any debt in effort put into me.

[Anonymous]

Yes you have to, they read too much into every little thing.

[Anonymous]

Here's the problem. Half of women complain about men thinking they like them when they don't, and the other half complain that men can't pick up on their hints that they like them.

This is a female problem.

[Jdjfjcjj]

Excellent quality to have when dating. Seriously, women put themselves in positions sometimes and then wonder why something happened

[sassy_receptor]

of course