Social anxiety is a growing problem nowadays. The best way to explain social anxiety is as a phobia of humans. Its consequences are fear of interacting with people, having trouble talking, and making conversations. It gets worse in social gatherings and meeting new people. There can be many reasons for social anxiety, including childhood trauma, unknown personality type, genetics, misleading social circle, peer pressure, etc.
One of the main reasons for social anxiety is unknown personality type. There exist three types of personalities in people: introverted, extroverted, and ambiverts. If one is unsure about their personality type, they cannot realize what place they feel good. One must
have their own preferences rather than depending on the people surrounding them for what they want and if they're going to sit in a social gathering or not.
For example, if surrounded by other introverted people, naturally, extroverted people would feel more of an introvert than themselves. Even if meeting people would make them feel good, they would prefer their friends and avoid that company because of peer pressure. Therefore, for a good social presence, one must know their satisfaction level to be worked on.
Excellent write-up. It helps knowing your personality type. An introvert would not be comfortable in the company of extroverts. I like the fact that you mentioned ambiverts. Sometimes, we get so occupied between two extremes that we forget to settle on an intermediate. I think there are more people who would like to define themselves as ambiverts rather than introverts or extroverts.
If we look at LUMS, we often find people from the senior batch with no friends. And one of the main reasons is that they did not find someone having a similar mindset and personality type. In addition, peer pressure and bullying also sometimes lead to social anxiety. There is a famous book by Ellen Hendriksen "how to be yourself" where she talks about social anxiety in detail and its cure.