I have always found talking with others to be super tiring, and not in a condescending way. It just tires me out to converse for long periods of time (like having 2 simultaneous conversations on Facebook makes me very "BLARGH"). Does anyone know how to get over this? I find it amazing that people that can maintain a large people/friend network.

This concerns me a lot because I'll be attending college this fall and college is the pinnacle of networking for my major (EECS). And I'm out-of-state (paying ~50k/year at a great CS school)...so you bet your butt I should be networking. How tf am I going to make friends/put myself out there if I have trouble holding down long conversations? I'd like to think that I'm social (have a moderately sized friend group right now), it's just the continuous talking that can be hard sometimes...)

I think what spurred this sudden panic is the roommate group for my college. So many people have common interests over there (mostly sports)! My activities/interests consist of school, robotics, no sports (legit allergic to the sun + had asthma when I was little + shit hand-eye coordination), and super scattered music genres. I feel so bland.

This turned out to be more ranty and very disorganized, whoops :^( I'd like to know how y'all fare out there and how you can manage it. Someone give me inspiration or passion (of 1000 suns)! General college advice would be appreciated too! I'm just nervous and a little disconcerted ;_;

How do you social nowadays ..

I'm a college student (second year) and I'm switching major (yay o/). In college, you just have that weird big sea of different people. Some magical unicorns, some geek-y, some sport-centric .. etc. Sometimes, you get lucky and find a great sandwich person of everything (including your interests). What's important about college is to stay true to yourself and to remember that you're here to learn and have a great carreer (or your hopes and wishes). It's totally fine to be socially awkward! You'll improve over time and you'll be able to handle some conversation. Of course, you can't fit with everyone and get along with all crowds.

Take your time pal, it's okay to be a magical snail.

I know how you feel... People rant at me because I don't write first and sometimes I don't reply at all because I don't know how to keep a conversation (and most people don't understand this when I explain it to them).

It's always awkward having a smalltalk with someone for me and I avoid it at all costs. The only person I could talk to really well was my ex-bf...but now we don't talk to eachother anymore. :(

Just take your time and tell people that you aren't a great talker, not everyone can be a super-social-networker. Maybe someday you'll find someone you can talk to really well and that's what counts!

I know how you feel! I'm quite introverted, but with the right friends, I really open up. I know you probably don't believe me, but you will make very good friends in college. You will meet people that are just like you.

Especially in engineering - I majored in chemical engineering, and most of us are introverted. It's kind of the nature of the major. You'll meet people in your classes, and often this will be through homework or group projects, so you don't have to worry about striking up conversation, because you'll be talking about the class!

The main thing with networking is just to take advantage of opportunities through the college or through organizations (maybe like the women in engineering program or something equivalent with the CS department) such as lunches, receptions, meetings with alumni or companies, etc. Going to things like that is an easy way to meet people with whom you can network. Chatting up people like that is never fun, granted, but if networking is something that you're interested in you'll just have to bite that bullet. It'll get easier, too, the more you do it.

Basically just don't worry! The worst thing I did in college was get discouraged and down on myself and compared myself to others, and that caused me to feel pretty lousy. No matter what, you can do it! Never forget that! :)

I have the same problem - just being over at a friend's place and talking for a few hours leaves me needing a nap! I think the most important thing is finding people you actually want to talk to, and remembering to always leave time in your schedule for downtime to "recharge".

It's been said that the people who experience tiredness after prolonged social contact are introverted. The only time I experience tiredness after interacting with people is when I don't care for the people I'm with, which is seldom. Usually social interaction is fairly invigorating for me, though that might be because I like planning schedules and those types of gatherings fit nicely into them.

But I digress. You need not be best friends with your roommates; my freshman year, my roommate and I saw each other so little, I saw the people I had things in common with way more frequently than I saw her. Not that we didn't get along, we just never saw one another. So don't sweat it--universities have a lot of people, guaranteed there are people out there who share your interests.