Forumming for social development

[Sterling]

Hi everyone,

I'm a pretty shy person. I'm not always this way, but I've never felt that I could really contribute anything meaningful to a conversation, particularly in group situations, despite that (obviously) not being the case.

I'm new to this whole forumming thing, and I was wondering what benefits I could gain from doing it, with a view to face-to-face interaction. It seems logical to me that I could build confidence from this sort of environment, but at the same time, perhaps these two environments are too dissimilar.

Yet I used to check out some forums and lurk around a lot, and left feeling really guilty and unfulfilled. I'm really aware of slipping back into that, and I certainly don't want to waste any time on forumming too much, as I've done in the past.

Do you think that using a forum is a useful means of breaking my introverted nature? Or am I better off just doing it in the real world? For those who have been part of forums for a long time, have you felt that using them has helped you communicate face to face? Or made it worse?

I'm very interested in hearing your views! I guess that your responses will determine whether I stick around or not