[aragot]

There's a "friends fallacy": Statistically, your friends have more friends than you. It's a true mathematical fact, due to the fact that the people with a lot of friends weigh a lot in the average of a lot of people. So it's not only your imagination ;)

I'd say you need to have a mentor, and in many cases it means having a psychologist. It takes hours to get over shyness and beyond all other hindrances of social life.