I'm a guy in my 40s with a technician ticket and I've had the same problem. I tune in to my local repeaters from time to time, and listen in to my local net every couple of months - but I have yet to find a conversation I really want to participate in. I'm sure you've heard enough variations of this story that the details of mine won't add anything.

From my Internet-native perspective, 2m repeaters are basically a locally-focused chatroom - and I have access to competing services on half a dozen competing platforms. Local repeaters need a social-media-manager type person to to volunteer their time to help make it an active & appealing community.

I am, however, a guy in my 40s with an intense professional job and a family - so I'm not able to step up and make this happen on my local repeater.