(M23) I could need a new perspective on how to approach dating

Hello everyone, hope you're having a good one!

Just so you know, english isn't my mother tongue so if grammatical errors bother you a lot then yeah sorry about that.

Anyway I'm posting here because my previous attempts with dating have been rather unsuccessful and after a long break thanks to a certain global health pandemic I thought I can try again with a fresh start but this time with advice from complete strangers on the internet, what can go wrong right?

As a sidenote, I'm in a country where the pandemic is pretty much over, bars / restaurants are all open again, the only thing that you can't do are planned gatherings with more than 20 people, which isn't a problem because I wouldn't go there to meet people anyway.

The reason for that is because I still have slight paranoia from my past and I get twitchy when there are too many people around or people that are doing erratic things or moving fast, so going to a restaurant or park is easy going, going to a disco or something, not so much. Which kind of limits the places where I can meet people or what hobbies I can have (I'm seing a therapist so it's getting better, no worries).

So to my situation, my previous attempts were just old school. Go to a bar and speak to women, strike a conversation and ask them out, boom done. Now I don't know if it's my shit luck or this bar is the "I just want to be left alone" bar but I went to my local bar about 30-40 times in a span of 3 months and there is rarely a women sitting there alone and I don't approach women that are in a group since I'm guessing they are there to have a good time with friends.

The few times where there was a women sitting alone I just approached with a "can I get you a drink?" or "would you mind some company?", yeah I know, not very innovative but I'm not experienced enough to be innovative. Most say no thank you so I just leave (I don't pry, I take no as a no) and the few times they said yes either they were glued to their phone and would give 1 word answers or the conversation just wasn't going anywhere and asking them out after that just felt weird.

I guess my social skills aren't as great as I imagined them to be or it's literally just my face.

Now most people are still slightly on edge and weary of the pandemic so the bar will have less people and most importantly, less people that are alone or looking to meet up with strangers. So going there just feels useless at this point.

As for the hobbies I have, they are pretty isolated (again, paranoia). I like to go on walks or jogging to stay in shape, when the weather is good I like to go swimming. There aren't many great opportunities to strike a conversation with strangers there.

Apart from that I like gaming and since the pandemic I have been having lots of fun with learning to cook, again, not really many people you get to meet there.

I thought about dating apps but from what I have read those are the best way to get your self esteem hammered if you're a guy so I'm not sure if I should.

So yeah! That is where I am right now, not much else to say. Any help is really appreciated and I hope you have a nice one!