Am i wasting my 20s by doing this ?
I am a 23M, and my social circle is almost nonexistent. I used to have a few friends back in my early teens, but for most of my life, I grew up alone. To entertain myself, I played video games or watched TV as a kid.
My parents were overprotective. They didn't let me go outside until I entered my teenage years, and because of that, I had a very hard time understanding people's true intentions. I trusted the wrong people and got blackmailed at the age of 10, which led to trust issues. Later, I found some genuinely good friends, and we're still in touch. The problem is that we've all become busy with our lives as we've entered adulthood.
We rarely meet, especially me. My work schedule is very tight, so the only free time I have is around midnight. I prefer to spend that time improving my skills and expanding my knowledge, so I don't really have time to go out and meet them. Honestly, I don't even want to most of the time because it feels like a waste of time. Meeting up with friends once a month is fine, but I'm not the kind of person who wants to hang out every day.
I tend to see everything in terms of investment and return. If I'm investing my time in something and not getting any meaningful return from it, I usually don't do it.
However, I also realize that this mindset limits my opportunities. I know that if I don't interact with people, attend events, or put myself out there, I'll probably miss out on valuable opportunities. At the same time, I don't want to spend my time talking to people every day. It's just not my cup of tea.
So, what advice do you all have for me? Should I continue focusing on building my skills and networking online since the skills I'm developing are mostly relevant in the online world? Or should I make more of an effort to go outside, make new friends, and build real-life connections, which might require me to change my current job because of it's tight schedule.